The intellectual development of the Canadian people [microform] : an historical review

THK

INTELLECTUAL DEYELOPMEJ^T

OF

THE CANADIAN PEOPLE.

THE

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPM ENT

OF

THE CANADIAN PEOPLE :

§» iiiotanral ^Uvicir.

BY

JOHN GEORGE BOUEINOT,

The Clerk of the House of Commons^ Canada ;

AUTHOR OF * GENTLEMEN ADVENTURERS IN ACADIA,' * CANADA ON THE SEA,'
* NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF CANADA,' ETC,

SToroutD :

HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY,

188J,

F5035

64,7
C.3

PliEFATOKY NOTE.

rpHIS series of papers has been prepared in accordance
with a plan marked out b^ the writer, some years ago
of takingup,from time to time, certain features of the social,
political and industrial pi-ogress of the Dominion. Essays
on the Maritime Industry and the National Development
of Canada have been read before the Eoyal Colonial In-
stitute in England, and have been so favourably received
by the Press of both countries, that the writer has felt
encouraged to continue in the same course of study, and
supplement his previous efforts by an historical review of
the intellectual progress of the Canadian people.

HoU.SE OF COxMMONS,

Ottawa, February j^th, 1881.

COI^ TENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Effect of Social and Political Changes on Mental Develop-

-■'' MENT.

Introductory Remarks— Conditions of Settlement in Canada— Her History
divided into three Periods- First Period, under the French Regime;
Second, from the Conquest to the Union of 1840 ; Third, from 1840 to
1867— New Period since Confederation— Intellectual Lethargy in New
France— Influence of U. E. Loyalists on Political and Social Life of the
Canadian Provinces— Formation of two Governments in the East and
West— Effect of Parliamentary Institutions on the Public Intelligence
--Remarkable impulse given to Canadian Communities by the Union
of 1840-Difficulties of the Old Settlers- Results of the improvement of
Internal Intercourse, the growth of Education and Political Progress -
Population in 1760, 1840 and 1870-Rapid increase of the Professional
and Educated Classes -Wider Field of Thought and Activity opened
to Canadians by Confederation— Effect of Climatic Influences on Na-
tional Development— Distinctive traits of French Canadians— Influence
of Union of Races— Usefulness of Religious Teachers in early times-
Labours of the Journalist— Influence of Political Discussion— Develop-
ment of Public Intelligence through the extension of Political Rights.

CHAPTER IL

Education.

State of Education under the French Rdgime-Its slow progress after the
Conquest— Schools in Upper Canada— Dr. Strachan's famous Academy
-Stimulus given to Public Schools by the Union of 1840-Schools in

CONTENTS,

the Maritime Provinces— Higher Education in Canada— The Quebec
Seminary— King's College — Roman Catholic, Methodist and Presbyte-
rian Institutions— Firjat Colleges in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
—Laval University— Kiiifston Military College and other Educational
Experiments — Female Colleges Statistics of Educational Progress-
Status of Teachers — Defects of the Public School System — Review of
the University System— Advantages of Special Professional Courses
as in Oerniany A National University.

CHAPTER III.

Journalism.

Influence of the Newspaper Press on the Intellect of the Country — First
Newspapers in Canada — Review of Political Journalism up to 1840 —
(Quebec Gazette, Montreal Gazette, Quebec Mercury, Le Canadien, etc.
— Journalists of mark in old times — Cary, Bedard, Neilson, Mackenzie,
Home, Fothergill, Gumett, Dalton, Parent — Mrs. Jameson on the Up-
per Canada Press — Advent of Josei)h Howe— Journalism since 1840 —
Sir Francis Hincks— The Globe and Hon. George 'Brown- -Le Journal
de Quebec and Hon. Joseph Cauchon — The Neiv Era and Hon. D'Arcy
McGee — The Hamilton Spectator, Toronto Leader and other Journals
of note established — Oldest Newspapers in Canada —Number of Papers,
and their probable total Circulation — Influential Journals since 1867 —
Leading Journalists — The Religious Press — Illustrated Papers — Influ-
ence of the Press in Canada— Its Improvement in tone and its great
Enterprise — The Old and New Times, as illustrated in two Toronto
Papers.

CHAPTER rV^

Native Literature.

Society in New France— Intellectual Lethargy— First Books published after
the Conquest- Bouchette's Works — New Era in French Canadian Let-
ters— Periodicals, Histories, Poems — Garneau, Ferland, Cremazie, Fre-
chette— Antiquarian Research— Canadian Ballads— Literary Progress
of English-speaking People— Society previous to the Union of 1840—
Early Libraries and Magazines— Authors of Repute—' Sam Slick '• -

CONTENTS. xi

Professor Daw.son-Charles Heavy.se-e Pootry Romance Ki.tory-
Miscellaneoua Works of Merit Mr. Alpheu. Todd's Constitutional Re-
searches-Contributions to Colonial Literature by Public Men-Talent
in the Legislature— Results of a Century of Progress summed up— Men-
tal Activity among the Intelligent and Educated Classes-Increasing
Issue of Works and Pamphlets from Canadian Press-Signs of General
Culture -Public Libraries— Literary and Scientific Societies— Mechan-
ics' Institutes— School Libraries— A Grand Opportunity for the Rich
Men CL C^anada Literary, Artistic and Scientific Topics engaging
greater Attention- Writers of Intellectual Power on the Increase-En"
couraging Signs of Intellectual Development— Brighter Auguries for the
liiture.

THE

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

OF

THE CANADIAN PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

EFFECT OF SOCIAL AXD POLITICAL CHANGES OX MENTAL

DEVELOPMENT.

g HOULD the title of this review come by any chance under
the notice of some of those learned gentlemen who are
delving among Greek roots or working out abstruse mathemati-
cal problems in the great academic seats on the banks of the
Cam or Isis, they would probably wonder what can be said on
the subject of the intellectual development of a people engaged
in the absorbing practical,work of a Colonial dependency. To
«uch eminent scholars Canada is probably only remarkable as
a country where even yet there is. apparently, so little sound
scholarship that vacancies in classical and mathematical chairs
have to be frequently filled by gentlemen who have distinguished
themselves m the Universities of the parent state. Indeed if

The Intellectual Develoiwient

we are to judge from articles and books that appear from time
to time in England with reference to this country, English-
men in general know very little of the progress that has been
made in culture since Canada has become the most important
dependency of Great Britain, by virtue of her material progress
within half a century. Even the Americans who live alongside
of us, and would be naturally supposed to be pretty well in-
formed as to the progress of the Dominion to their north, appear
for the most part ignorant of the facts of its development in
this particular. It was but the other day that a writer of some
ability, in an organ of religious opinion, referred to the French
Canadians as a people speaking only inferior French, and entirely
wanting in intellectual vigour. Nor is this fact surprising when
we consider that there are even some Canadians who do not ap-
pear to have that knowledge which they ought to have on such
a subject, and take many opportunities of concealing their
ignorance by depreciating the intellectual efforts of their coun-
trymen. If so much ignorance or indifference prevails with
respect to the progress of Canada in this respect, it must be
admitted — however little flattering the admission may be to
our national pride — that it is, after all, only the natural sequel
of colonial obscurity. It is still a current belief abroad — at
least in Europe — that we are all so much occupied with the
care of our material interests, that we are so deeply absorbed
by the grosser conditions of existence in a new country, that

of the Canadian People. S

we have little opportunity or leisure to cultivate those things
which give refinement and tone to social life. Many persons
lose sight of the fact that Canada, young though she is com-
pared with the countries of the Old World, has passed beyond
the state of mere colonial pupilage. One very important section
of her population has a history contemporaneous with the
history of the New England States, whose literature is read
wherever the English tongue is spoken. The British population
have a history which goes back over a century, and it is the
record of an industrious, enterprising people who have made
great political and social progress. Indeed it may be said that
the political and material progress that these two sections of the
Canadian people have conjointly made is of itself an evidence of
their mental capacity. But whilst reams are written on the
industrial progress of the Dominion with the praiseworthy ob-
ject of bringing additional capital and people into the country,
onlv an incidental allusion is made now and then to the illus-
trations of mental activity which are found in its schools, in its
press, and even in its literature. It is now the purpose of the
present wriler to show that, in the essential elements of intel-
lectual development, Canada is making not a rapid but cer-
tainly at least a steady and encouraging progress, which proves
that her people have not lost, in consequence of the decided dis-
advantages of their colonial situation, any of the characteristics
of the races to whom they owe their origin. He will endea-

The Intellechiat Development

vour to treat the subject in the spirit of an impartial critic,
and confine himself as closely as possible to such facts as illus-.
trate the character of the progress, and give much encourage-
ment for the future of a country even now only a little beyond
the infancy of its material as well as intellectual development.
It is necessary to consider first the conditions under which
the Dominion has been peopled, before proceeding to follow the
progress of intellectual culture. So far, the history of Canada
may be divided into three memorable periods of political and
social development. The first period lasted during the years
of French dominion; the second, from the Conquest to the
Union of 1840, during which the provinces were working out
representative institutions ; the third, from 1840 to 1867, during
which interval the country enjoyed responsible government,
and entered on a career of material progress only exceeded by
that of the great nation on its borders. Since 1867, Canada
has commenced a new period in her political development,
the full results of which are yet a problem, but which the writer
believes, in common with all hopeful Canadians, will tend
eventually to enlarge her political condition, and place her in a
higher position among communities. It is only necessary, how-
ever, to refer particularly to the three first periods in this intro-
ductory chapter, which is merely intended to show as concisely
as possible those successive changes in the social and political
circumstances of the provinces, which have necessarily had the

of the Canadian People.

effect of stimulating the intellectual development of the people.
Religion and commerce, poverty and misfortune, loyalty and
devotion to the British Empire, have brought into the Dominion
of Canada the people who, within a comparatively short period
of time, have won from the wilderness a country whose pre-
sent condition is the best evidence of their industrial activity.
Religion was a very potent influence in the settlement of New
France. It gave to the country — to the Indian as well as to
the Frenchman — the services of a zealous, devoted band of mis-
sionaries who, with unfaltering courage, forced their way into
the then trackless Yi^est, and associated their names to all
time w^th the rivers, lakes, and forests of that vast region,
which is now the most productive granary of the world. In
the wake of these priestly pioneers followed the trader and ad-
venturer to assist in solving the secrets of unknown rivers and
illimitable forests. From the hardy peasantry of Normandy and
Brittany came reinforcements to settle the lands on the banks
of the St. Lawrence and its tributary rivers, and lay the foun-
dations of the present Province of Quebec. The life of the
population, that, in the course of time, filled up certain districts
of the province, w^as one of constant restlessness and uncertainty
which prevented them ever attaining a permanent prosperity.
Wlien the French regime disappeared with the fall of Quebec
and Montreal, it can hardly be said there existed a Canadian
people di9tinguished for inaterial of intellectual activity. At no

6 The Intellectvxil Development

time under the government of France had the voice of the
* habitants ' any influence in the councils of their country. A
bureaucracy, acting directly under the orders of the King of
France, managed public affairs ; and the French Canadian of
those times, very unlike his rival in New England, was a mere
automaton, without any political significance whatever. The
communities of people that were settled on the St. Lawrence
and in Acadia were sunk in an intellectual lethargy -the
natural consequence not only of their hard struggle for exis-
tence, but equally of their inability to take a part in the govern-
ment of the country. It was impossible that a people who
had no inducement to study public affairs — who could not even
hold a town or parish meeting for the establishment of a pub-
lic schools — hould give many signs of mental vigour. Conse-
quently, at the time of the Conquest, the people of the Canadian
settlements seemed to have no aspirations for the future, no
interest in the prosperity or welfare of each other, no real
.bonds of unity. The very flag which floated above them was
an ever-present evidence of their national humiliation.

So the first period of Canadian history went down amid the
deepest gloom, and many years passed away before the country
saw the gleam of a brighter day. On one side of the English
Channel, the King of France soon forgot his mai-tification at the
loss of an unprofitable * region of frost and snow ; ' on the other
side, the English Government looked with indifference, now th^t

of the Canadian People.

the victory was won, on the acquisition of an alien people who
were likely to be a source of trouble and expense. Then occurred
the War of American Independence, which aroused the English
Miristry from their indifference and forced into the country
many thousands of resolute, intelligent men, who gave up every-
thing in their devotion to one absorbing principle of loyalty.
The history of these men is still to be written as respects their
real influence on the political and social life of the Canadian
Provinces. A very superficial review, however, of the charac-
teristics of these pioneers will show that they were men of strong
opinions and great force of character — valuable qualities in
the formation of a new community. If, in their Toryism, they
and their descendants were slow to change their opinions and
to yield to the force of those progressive ideas necessary to the
political and mental development of a new country, yet, per-
haps, these were not dangerous characteristics at a time when
republicanism had not a few adherents among those who saw
the greater progress and prosperity of the people to the south
of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. These men were not
ordinary immigrants, drawn from the ignorant, poverty-stricken
classes of an Old "World ; they were men of a time which had
produced Otis, Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Washington —
men of remarkable energy and intellectual power. Not a few
of these men formed in the Canadian colony little centres from
which r^diate4 n^ore oy Jess of intellectual light to brighter^

8 Tlie Intellectual Development

the prevailing darkness of those rough times of Canadian settle
ment. The exertions of these men^ ?cmbined with the in-
dustry of others brought into the country l)y the hope of
making homes and fortunes in the New World, opened up, in
the course of years, the fertile lands of tl e West. Then two
provinces were formed in the East and West, divided by the
Ottawa River, and representative government was conceded
to each. The struggles of the majority to enlarge their political
liberties and break the trammels of a selfish bureaucracy illus-
trate the new mental vigour that was infused into the French
Canadian race by the concession of the parliamentary system
of 1792. The descendants of the people who had no share what-
ever in the government under French rule had at last an admi-
rable opportunity of proving their capacity for administering
their own affairs, and the verdict of the present is, that, on
the whole, whatever mistakes were committed by their too ar-
dent and impulsive leaders, they showed their full appreciation
of the rights that were justly theirs as the people of a free colo-
nial community. Their minds expanded with their new politi-
cal existence, and a new people were born on the banks of the
St. Lawrence.

At the same time the English-speaking communities of
Upper Canada and the Maritime Provinces advanced in men-
tal vigour with the progress of the struggle for more liberal
institutions. Men of no ordinary intellectual power were created

of the Canadian People.

by that political agitation which forced the most indifferent
from that mental apathy, natural perhaps to a new country, where
a struggle for mere existence demands such unflagging physical
exertion. It is, however, in the new era that followed the
Union that we find the fullest evidence of the decided mental
progress of the Canadian communities. From that date the Ca-
nadian Provinces entered on a new period of industrial and
mental activity. Old jealousies and rivalries between the differ-
ent races of the country became more or less softened by the
closer intercourse, social and political, that the Union brought
about. During the fierce political conflicts that lasted for so
many years in Lower Canada — those years of trial for all true
Canadians — the division between the two races was not a mere
line, but apparently a deep gulf, almost impossible to be bridged
in the then temper of the contending parties. No common
education served to remove and soften the differences of origin
and language. The associations of youth, the sports of child-
hood, the studies by which the character of manhood is modified,
were totally distinct.'* With the Union of 1840, unpalatable
as it was to many French Canadians who believed that the mea-
sure was intended to destroy their political autonomy, came
a spirit of conciliation which tended to modify, in the course of
no long time, the animosities of the past, and awaken a belief in
the good will and patriotism of the two races, then working

Report of Lord D\;rham on Canada, jjp. 14-15,

10 The Intellectual Developmerd

side by side in a common country, and having the same destiny
in the future. And with the improvement of facilities for trade
and intercourse, all sections were brought into those more inti-
mate relations which naturally give an impulse not only to
internal commerce but to the intellectual faculties of a people.*
During the first years of the settlement of Canada there was
a vast amount of ignorance throughout the rural districts,
especially in the western Province. Travellers who visited the
country and had abundant opportunities of ascertaining its
social condition, dwelt pointedly on the moral and intellectual
apatny that prevailed outside a few places like York or other
centres of intelligence ; but they forgot to make allowance for
the difficulties that surrounded these settlers. The isolation of
their lives had naturally the effect of making even the hotter
class narrow-minded, selfish, and at last careless of anything
like refinement. Men who lived for years without the means of
frequent communication with their fellow-men, without oppor-
tunities for social, instructive intercourse, except what they
might enjoy at rare intervals through the visit of some intelli-
gent clergyman or tourist, might well have little ambition except
to satisfy the grosser wants of their nature. The post oflice,

* Lord Macaulay says on this point : Every improvement of the means of
locomotion benefits mankind morally and intellectually, as well as materially,
and not only facilitates the interchange of the various productions of nature
and art, but tends to remove natural and provincial antipathies and to bind
together all the brfinches of the human family.

of the Canadian People, 11

the schcol, and the church were only to he found, in the majority
of cases, at a great distance from their homes. Their children,
as likely as not, grew up in ignorance, even were educational
facilities at hand ; for in those days the parent had absolute
need of his son's assistance in the avocations of pioneer life.
Yet, with all these disadvantages, these men displayed a spirit
of manly independence and fortitude which was in some measure
a test of their capacity for better things. They helped to make
the country what it is, and to prepare the way for the larger
population which came into it under more favourable auspices
after the Union of 1840. From that time Canada received a
decided impulse in everything that tends to make a country
happy and prosperous. Cities, towns and villages sprang uj-
with remarkable activity all over the face of the country, and
vastly enlarged the opportunities for that social intercourse
which is always an important factor in the education of a new
country. At the same time, with the progress of the country
in population and wealth, there grew up a spirit of self-reliance
which of itself attested the mental vigour of the people. Whilst
England was still for many * the old home,' rich in memories
of the past, Canada began to be a real entity, as it were, a
something to be loved, and to be proud of. The only reminis-
cences that very many had of the countries of their origin were
reminiscences of poverty and wretchedness, and this class valued
above all old national associations the comfort and independence,

12 The Intellectual Developmoit

if not wealth, they Lad been able to win in their CcUiadian home.
The Frenchman, Scotchman, Irishman, and Englishman, now
that they had achieved a marked success in their pioneer work,
determined that their children should not be behind those of
New England, and set to work to build up a system of. educa-
tion far more comprehensive and liberal than that enjoyed by
the masses in Great Britain. On all sides at last there were
many evidences of the progress of culture, stimulated by the
more generally diffused prosperity. It was only necessary to
enter into the homes of the people, not in the cities and impor-
tant centres of industry and education, but in the rural districts,
to see the effects of the industrial and mental development
within the period that elapsed from the Union of 1810 to the
Confederation of 1867. Where a humble log cabin once rose
among the black pine stumps, a comfortable and in many
cases expensive mansion, of wood or more durable material, had
become the home of the Canadian farmer, who, probably, in his
early life, had been but a poor peasant in the mother country.
He himself, whose life had been one of unremitting toil and en-
deavour, showed no culture, but his children reaped the full
benefits of the splendid opportunities of acquiring knowledge
afforded by the country which owed its prosperity to their
father and men like him. The homes of such men, in the most
favoured districts, were no longer the abodes of rude industry,
but illustrative, in not a few qases, of that comfort md refine^

of the Canadian People, 13

■ ■■ I — IIIIM-.. — -^.11 .11 I ■-■ ..Ill I .IMI , I III,. Ill II I.I . I I. , IIH.I. 11— I- —— —

ment which must be the natural sequence of the general dis-
tribution of wealth, the improvement of internal intercourse, and
the growth of education.

When France no longer owned a foot of land in British North
America, except two or three barren islets on the coast of New-
foundland, the total population of the provinces known now as
Canada was not above seventy thousand souls, nearly all French.
From that time to 1840, the population of the different pro-
vinces made but a slow increase, owing to the ignorance that
prevailed as to Canada, the indifference of English statesmen
in respect to colonization, internal dissensions in the country
itself, and its slow progress, as compared with the great re-
public on its borders. Yet, despite these obstacles to advance-
ment, by 1841 the population of Canada reached nearly a million
and a half, of whom at least fifty-five per cent, were French
Canadians. Then the tide of immigration set in this direction,
until at last the total population of Canada rose, in 1867,
to between three and four millions, or an increase of more than
a hundred per cent, in a quarter of a century. By the last
Census of 1870, we have some idea of the national character of
this population — more than eighty per cent, being Canadian by
birth, and, consequently, identified in all senses of the term with
the soil and prosperity of the country. Whilst the large propor-
tion of the people are necessarily engaged in those industrial
pursuits which are the basis of a country's material prosperity,

14 The Intellectual Development

the statistics show the rapid growth of the classes who live by
mental labour, and who are naturally the leaders in matters of
culture. The total number of the professional class in all the
provinces was some 40,000, of whom 4,436 were clergymen, 109
judges, 264 professors, 3,000 advocates and notaries, 2,792 phy-
sicians and surgeons, 13,400 teachers, 451 civil engineers, 232
architects ; and for the first time we find mention of n special
class of artists and litterateurs, 590 in all, and these evidently do
not include journalists, who would, if enumerated, largely swell
the number.

Previous to 1867, diflferent communities of people existed
throughout British North America, but they had no general
interest or purpose, no real bond of union, except their common
allegiance to one Sovereign. The Confederation of the Provinces
was intended, by its very essence and operation, to stimulate,
not only the industrial energy, but the mental activity as well,
of the different communities that compose the Dominion. A
wider field of thought has, undoubtedly, been opened up to these
communities, so long dwarfed by that narrow provincialism
which every now and then crops up to mar our national develop-
ment and impede intellectual progress. Already the people of
the Confederated Provinces are every where abroad recognised
as Canadians — as a Canadian people, with a history of their own,
with certain achievements to prove their industrial activity.
Climatic influences, all history proves, have much to do with

q/ the Canadian People. 15

the progress of a people. It is an admitted fact that the highest
grade of intellect has always been developed, sooner or later, in
those countries which have no great diversities of climate.* If
our natural conditions are favourable to our mental growth, so,
too, it may be urged that the difference of races which exists in
Canada may have a useful influence upon the moral as well as
the intellectual nature of the people as a whole. In all the
measures calculated to develop the industrial resources and
stimulate the intellectual life of the Dominion, the names of
French Canadians appear along with those of British origin.
The French Canadian is animated by a deep veneration for the
past history of his native country, and by a very decided deter-
mination to preserve his language and institutions intact ; and
consequently there exists in the Province of Quebec a national
French Canadian sentiment, which has produced no mean intel-
lectual fruits. We know that all the grand efforts in the
attainment of civilization have been accomplished by a com-
bination of different peoples. The union of the races in Canada
must have its effect in the way of varying and reproducing, and
probably invigorating also, many of the qualities belonging to

* Sir A. Alison (Vol. xiii. p. 271), aays on thip point: 'Canada and the
other British possessions in British North America, though apparently-
blessed with fewer physical advantages than the country to the South,
contain a noble race, and are evidently destined for a lofty destination
Everything there is in proper keeping for the development of the combined
physical and mental qualities of man. There are to be found at once the
h^dihood of character which conquers difficulty, the severity of climate
which stimulates exertion, and natural advantages which reward enterprise.'

16 The Intellectual Development

each — material, moral, and mental ; an effect only perceptible
after the lapse of very many years, but which is, nevertheless,
being steadily accomplished all the while with the progress of
social, political, and commercial intercourse. The greater im-
pulsiveness and vivacity of the French Canadian can brighten
up, so to say, the stolidity and ruggedness of the Saxon. The
strong common-sense and energy of the Englishman can com-
bine advantageously with the nervous, impetuous activity of the
Gaul. Nor should it be forgotten that the French Canadian is
not a descendant of the natives of the fickle, sunny South, but
that his forefathers came from the more rugged Normandy and
Brittany, whose people have much that is akin with the people
of the British islands.

In the subsequent portions of this review, the writer will
endeavour to follow the progress in culture, not merely of the
British-speaking people, but of the two races now w^orking
together harmoniously as Canadians. It will not be necessary
to dwell at any length on the first period of Canadian history
It is quite obvious that in the first centuries of colonial history,
but few intellectual fruits can be brought to maturity. In the
infancy of a colony or dependency like Canada, whilst men are
struggling with the forest and sea for a livelihood, the mass of
the people can only find mental food in the utterances of the
pulpit, the legislature, and the press. This preliminary chapter
would be incomplete were we to forget to bear testimony to

of the Canadian People. 17

the fidelity with which the early Roman Catholic and Protes-
tant missionaries laboured at the great task devolving upon them
among the pioneers in the Canadian wilderness. In those times
of rude struggle with the difficulties of a colonial life, the reli-
gious teachers always threw a gleam of light amid the mental
darkness that necessarily prevailed among the toilers of the land
and sea. Bishops Laval, Lartigue, Strachan, and Mountain ;
Sister Bourgeois, Dr. Burns, Dr. Jas. McGregor, Dr. Anson
Green, are conspicuous names among the many religious teach-
ers who did good service in the early times of colonial develop-
ment. During the first periods of Canadian history, the priest
or clergyman was, as often as not, a guide in things temporal
as well as spiritual. Dr. Strachan was not simply the instructor
in knowledge of many of the Upper Canadian youth who, in
after times, were among the foremost men of their day, but was
as potent and obstinate in the Council as he was vigorous
and decided in the pulpit. When communications were wretched,
and churches were the exception, the clergyman was a constant
guest in the humble homes of the settlers, who welcomed him as
one who not only gave them religious instruction, but on many
a winter or autumn evening charmed the listeners in front of
the blazing maple logs with anecdotes of the great world of
which they too rarely heard. In those early days, the Church
of England clergyman was a man generally trained in one of

the Universities of the parent state, bringing to the discharge
2

18 The Intellectual Development

of his duties a conscientious conviction of his great responsibili-
ties, possessing at the same time varied knowledge, and neces-
sarily exercising through his profession and acquirements no
inconsiderable influence, not only in a I'eligious but in an intel-
lectual sense as well — an influence which he has never ceased to
exercise in this country. It is true as the country, became more
thickly settled and the people began to claim larger political
rights, the influence of many leading minds among the Anglican
clergy, who believed in an intimate connection between Church
and State, even in a colony, was somewhat antagonistic to the
promotion of popular education and the extension of popular
government. The Church was too often the Church of the aris-
tocratic and wealthier classes; some of its clergy were sadly
wanting in missionary efibrts ; its magnificent liturgy was too
cold and intellectual, perhaps, for the mass : and consequently,
in the course of time, the Methodists made rapid progress in
Upper Canada. Large numbers of Scotch Presbyterians also
settled in the provinces, and exercised a powerful influence on
the social, moral and political progress of the country. These
pioneers came from a country where parish schools existed long
before popular education was dreamed of across the border.
Their clergy came from colleges whose course of study cultivated
minds of rare analytical and argumentative power. The sermon
in the Presbyterian Church is the test of the intellectual calibre
of the preacher, whose efforts are followed by his long-headed

of the Canadian People. 19

congregation in a spirit of the keenest criticism, ever ready to
detect a want of logic. It is obvious then that the Presbyterian
clergyman, from the earliest time lie appeared in the history of
this country, has always been a considerable force in the
mental development of a large section of the people, which has
given us, as it will be seen hereafter, many eminent statesmen,
journalists, and litterateurs. - y

From the time the people began to have a voice in public
affairs, the politician and the journalist commenced naturally
to have much influence on the minds of the masses. The labours
of the journalist, in connection with the mental development
of the country, will be treated at some length in a subsequent
part of the review. At present it is sufficient to say that of the
different influences that have operated on the minds of the peo-
ple generally, none has been more important than the Press,
notwithstanding the many discouraging circumstances under
which it long laboured, in a thinly populated and poor country.
The influence of political discussion on the intellect of Canada
has been, on the whole^ in the direction of expanding the pub-
lic intelligence, although at times an extreme spirit of parti-
sanship has had the effect of evoking much prejudice and ill-
feeling, not calculated to develop the higher attributes of our
nature. But whatever may have been the injurious effects of
extreme partisanship, the people as a rule have found in the
discussion of public matters an excitement which has prevented

20 The Intellechtal Develoijmerd

them from falling into that mental torpor so likely to arise
amid the isolation and rude conditions of early times. If the
New England States have always been foremost in intellectual
movement, it may be attributed in a great measure to the fact
that from the first days of their settlement they thought and
acted for themselves in all matters of local interest. It was
only late in the day when Canadians had an opportunity given
them of stimulating their mental faculties by public discussion,
but when they were enabled to act for themselves they rapidly
improved in mental strength. It is very interesting to Cana-
dians of the present generation to go back to those years when
the first Legislatures were opened in the old Bishop's Palace, on
the heights of Quebec, and in the more humble structure on the
banks of the Niagara River, and study the record of their initi-
ation into parliamentary procedure. It is a noteworthy fact that
the French Canadian Legislatures showed from the first an ear-
nest desire to follow, as closely as their circumstances would per-
mit, those admirable rules and principles of procedure which
the experience of centuries in England has shown to be necessary
to the preservation of decorum, to freedom of speech, and to
the protection of the minority. The speeches of the leading men
in the two Houses were characterized by evidences of large
constitutional knowledge, remarkable for men who had no prac-
tical training in parliamentary life. Of course there were in
these small Assemblies many men rough in speech and manner,

of tlie Canadian People, 21

with hardly any education whatever but tlie writers who refer to
them in no very complimentary terms* always ignore the hard-
ships of their pioneer life, and forget to do justice to their pos-
session, at all events, of good common-sense and much natural
acuteness, which enabled them to be of use in their humble
way, under the guidance of the few who were in those days the
leaders of public opinion. These leaders were generally men
drawn from the Bar, who naturally turned to the legislative
arena to satisfy their ambition and to cultivate on a larger scale
those powers of persuasion and argument in which their profes-
sional training naturally made them adepts. With many of
these men legislative success was only considered a means of
more rapidly attaining the highest honours of their profession,
and consequently they were not always the most disinterested
guides in the political controversies of the day ; but, neverthe-
less, it must be admitted that, on the whole, the Bar of Canada,
then as now, gave the country not a few men who forgot mere
selfish considerations, and brought to the discussion of public
affairs a wide knowledge and disinterested zeal which showed
how men of fine intellect can rise above the narrower range of
thought peculiar to continuous practice in the Courts. As pub-
lic questions became of larger import, the minds of politicians
expanded, and enabled them to bring to their discussion a

* For instance, Talbot, I, chap. 23. He acknowledges, at the same time,
the great ability of the leading men, * who would do credit to the British
Parliament.'

22 Tlie Intellectual Development

breadth of knowledge and argumentative force wliicli attracted
the attention of English statesmen, who were so constantly re-
ferred to in those times of our political pupilage, and were by
no means too ready to place a high estimate on colonial states-
manship. In the earlier days of our political history some men
played so important a part in educating the people to a full
comprehension of their political rights that their names must
be always gratefully remembered in Canada. Papineau, Bedard,
DeYalliere, Stuart, Neilson, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Howe, Wil-
mot, Johnstone, Uniacke, were men of fine intellects — natural-
born teachers of the people. Their successors in later times
have ably continued the work of perfecting the political struc-
ture. All party prejudice aside, every allowance made for poli-
tical errors in times of violent controversy, the result of their
efforts has been not only eminently favourable to the material
development of the country but also to the mental vigour of the
people. The statesmen who met in council in the ancient city
of Quebec during the October of 1864 gave a memorable illus-
tration of their constitutional knowledge and their practical
acumen in the famous Resolutions which form the basis of the
present Constitution of Canada.

But it is not within the limits of this review to dwell on
the political progress of Canada, except so far as it may influ-
ence the intellectual development of the people. It will be seen,
as we proceed, that the extension of political rights had a re.

of the Canadian People, 23

markable effect in stimulatirg tlie public intelligence and especi-
ally in improving the mental outfit oi the people. The press
increased in influence and ability ; but, more than all, with the
concession of responsible government, education became the
great question of the day in the legislatures of the larger pro-
vinces. But to so important and interesting a subject it will
be necessary to devote a separate chapter.

24 The Intellectual Develoiiment

CHAPTER II.

EDUCATION. ;-:■,;.,,

rriHE great educational advantages that the people of Canada
now enjoy, and more especially in the premier Province
of Ontario — as the splendid exhibit recently made at Paris and
Philadelphia has proved to the world — are the results of the
legislation of a v try few years. A review of the first two periods
of our political history afibrds abundant evidence that there
existed in Canada as in Europe much indifference in all matters
affecting the general education of the country. Whatever was
accomplished during these early times was owing, in a great
measure, to the meritorious efforts of ecclesiastical bodies or
private individuals. As long as France governed Canada, edu-
cation was entirely in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Jesuits, Franciscans, and other religious male and female
Orders, at an early date, commenced the establishment of those
colleges and seminaries which have always had so important a
share in the education of Lower Canada. The first school in
that province was opened in 1616 at Three Rivers, by Brother
Pacifique Duplessis, a Franciscan. The Jesuits founded a College
at Quebec in 1831, or three years before the establishment of
Harvard and the Ursulines opened their convent in the same

of the Canadian People. 25

city four years later. Sister Bonrgeoys, of Troyes, founded at
Montreal in 1659 the Congregation de Notre Dame for the
education of girls of humble rank, the commencement of an
institution which has now its buildings in many parts of
Canada. In the latter part of the seventeenth century Mgr.
Francois Xavier de Laval-Montmoreney, a member of one of
the proudest families in Europe, carried out a project of pro-
viding education for Canadian priests drawn from the people
of the country. Consequently, in addition to the Great Semi-
nary at Quebec, there was the Le.sser Seminary where boys were
taught in the hope that they would one day take orders. In
this project the Indians were included, and several attended
when the school was opened in 1668, in the huable dwelling
owned by Mme. Couillard, though it was not long before they
showed their impatience of scholastic bondage. It is also inte-
resting to learn that, in the inception of education, the French
endeavoured in more than one of their institutions to combine
industrial pursuits with the ordinary branches of an elementary
education. For instance, attached to the Seminary was a sort
of farm.school, established in the parish of St. Joachim, below
Quebec, the object of which was to train the humbler class of
pupils in agricultural as well as certain mechanical pursuits.
The manual arts were also taught in the institutions under the
charge of the Ursulines and Congregation. We find, for exam-
ple, a French King giving a thousand francs to a sisterhood of

20 TJte Intellectual Devclopmcnf

IVIoiitreal to Luy wool, and tlio same sum to teach young
girls to knit. We also read of the same Sovereign maintain-
ing a teacher of navigation and surveying at Quebec on the
modest salary of four hundred francs a-year. But all acco^ints
of the days of the French regime go to show that, despite the
zealous efforts of the religious bodies to improve the education
of the colonists, secular instruction was at a very low ebb.
One writer tells us that * even the children of officers and
gentlemen scarcely knew how to read and write ; they were
ignorant of the first elements of geography and history.' These
were, in fact, days of darkness everywhere, so far as the masses
were concerned. Neither England nor France had a system of
popular education. Yet it is undoubted that on the whole the
inhabitants of Canada had far superior moral and educational
advantages than were enjoyed during those times by the mass
of people in England and France. Even in the days of Wal-
pole and Hannah More the ignorance of the English peasantry
was only equalled by their poverty and moral depravity. "^^

* Crreen in his * History of the English Peojile ' says : — Purity and fidelity
to the marriage vow were sneered out of fashion ; and Lord Chesterfield,
in his letters to his son, instructed him in the- art of seduction as part
of a polite education. At the other end of the social scale lay the masses
of the poor. They were ignorant and bnital to a degree which it is hard to
conceive, for the vast increase of population which followed on the growth
of towns and the development of manufactures had been met by no effort
for religious or educational improvement. Not a new parish had been cre-
ated . Hardly a single new church had been built . Schools th^re were none
save the grammar schools of Edward and Elizabeth. The rural peasantry,
who were fast being reduced to pauperism by the poor-laws, were left with-

of the Canadian People. 27

Sensuality was not encouraged in Canada by the leaders of so-
ciety, as was notoriously the case in the best circles of England
and of France. Dull and devoid of intellectual light as was
the life of the Canadian, he had his places of worship, where he
had a moral training which elevated him immeasurably above
the peasantry of England as well as of his old home. The clergy
of Lower Canada confessedly did their best to relieve the igno-
rance of the people, but they were naturally unable to accom-
plish, by themselves, a task which pro[)erly devolved on the
governing class. But under the French regime in Canada, the
civil authorities were as little anxious to enlighten the people by
the establishment of schools as they were to give them a voice
in the government of the country. In remarkable contrast
with the conduct of the French Government in this particu-
lar were the efforts of the Puritan pioneers then engaged in the
work of civilization among the rocks of New England. Learn-
ing, after religion and social order, was the object nearest to the
hearts of the New England fathers ; or rather it may be said
that they were convinced that social order and a religious char-
acter could not subsist in the absence of mental culture. As

out moral or religious training of any sort. * We saw but one bible in the
parish of Chedda,' said Hannah More, at a far later time, 'and that was used
to prop a flower pot. ' p. 707, Harpers' ed. 1870.

Parkman also admits that 'towards the end of the French regime the Ca-
nadian habitant was probably better taught, so far as concerned religion,
than the mass of French peasants.' — The Old Regime in Canada.

28 The hitelledual Development

early as 1647, Governor Winthrop sanctioned a measure* which
was the first school law ever passed in America, and outlined
just such a system as we now enjoy on an extended scale in
Canada. Wise men those stern Puritans of the early colonial
^-imes! It is not surprising that intellectual food, so early pro-
vided for all classes, should have nurtured at last an Emerson,
an Everett, a Hawthorne, a Wendell Philips, a Longfellow,
a Lowell, a Howells, and a Parkman.

After the Conquest the education of the people made but little
progress in Lower Canada. Education was confined for the most
part to the Quebec Seminary, and a few other institutions under
the control of religious communities, permitted to remain in the
country. Lord Dorchester appointed a Commission in 1787, to
enquire into the whole subject, but no practical results followed
the step. In 1792 the Duke de Kochefoucauld wrote that
* the Canadian who could read was regarded as a phenomenon. '
The attempt of the ' Royal Institution for the Advancement of
Learning' to establish schools was comparatively a failure ; for
after an existence of twenty years it had only 37 schools, at-

* This measure provided that ' every township in this jurisdiction, after
the Lord has increased them to the number of 50 householders, shall then
forthwith appoint one within their town, to teach all such children as shall
resort to him, to write and read, whose wages shall be paid, either by the
parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by
way of supply.' And it was further ordered that 'when any town shall
increase to the number of one hundred families, or householders, they shall
set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth
so far as they may be fitted for the University. '

of the Canadian People, 29

tended by 1,048 pupils altogether. The British Government,
at no time after it came into possession of the province, ever
attempted anything for the promotion of general education.
Indeed, the only matter in which it appeared in connection
with education was one by no means creditable to it \ for it
applied the Jesuits' estates, which were destined for education,
to a species of fund for secret service, and for a number of years
maintained an obstinate struggle with the Assembly in order
to continue this misappropriation. No doubt the existing antago-
nism of races, then so great an evil in Lower Canada, prevented
anything like co-operation in this matter ; but added to this was,
probably, a doubt among the ruling class in Canada, as in Eng-
land, as to the wisdom of educating the masses. An educa-
tional report of 1824 informs us that 'generally not above one-
fourth of the entire population could read, and not above one-
tenth of them could write even imperfectly.' In the present-
ments of the grand juries, and in the petitions on public griev-
ances so frequently presented to Parliament, the majority of
the signers were obliged to make their marks. During the yoar
1824, the Fabrique Act was passed with the view of relieving
the public ignorance, but unhappily the political difficulties that
prevailed from that time prevented any effective measures being
carried out for the establishment of public schools throughout
the province.

Nor was education in the western province in a much better
state during the fi: st period of Parliamentary Government, that

30 The Intellectual Development

is from 1792 to 1840. It is noteworthy, however, that high
schools for the education of the wealthier classes were estab-
lished at a very early date in the province. The first classical
school was opened in the old town of Kingston by the Rev.
Dr. Stuiirt. In 1807 the first Education Act was passed,
establishing grammar schools in each of the eight districts in
which the province was divided, and endowing them with an
annual stipend of one hundred pounds each. In 1816 the first
steps were taken by the Legislature in the direction of common
schools — as they were then, and for some time afterwards,
designated — but the Acts that were then and subsequently
passed up to the time of the Union were very inadc^ ate to ac-
complish the object aimed at. No general system existed ; tlie
masters v/ere very inferior and ill paid. A very considerable
portion of the province was without schools as well as churches.
Of the lands which were generally appropriated to the support
of the former by far the most valuable portion was diverted to
the endowment of King's Col J^ge. In 1838 there were 24,000
children in the common schools, out of a population of 450,000,
leaving probably some 50,000 destitute of the means of educa-
tion. The well-to-do classes, however, especially those living in
the large towns, had good opportunities of acquiring a sound
education. Toronto was well supplied with establishments, sup-
ported by large endowments : Upper Canada College, the
Home District Grammar School, besides some well conducted

of the Canadian People. 31

seminaries for young ladies. For years Cornwall Grammar
School, under the superintendence of the energetic Dr. Strachan
was the resort of the provincial aristocracy. Among the men
who re'^eived their early education in that famous establishment
were Kobert Baldwin, H. J. Boulton, J. B. Macaulay, Allan
McNab, John Beverley Robinson, Dean Bethune, Clark Gamble,
and many others afterwards famous in politics, in law and in
the church. Dr. Strachan was not only a sound scholar but an
astute man of the world, admirably Qtted to develop the talents
of his pupils and prepare them for the active duties of life in
those young days of Canada. * In conducting your education,'
said he on one occasion, * one of my principal duties has always
been to fit you for discharging witt credit the duties of any
office to which you may hereafter be called. To accomplish this
it was necessary for you to be accustomed frequently to depend
upon and think for yourselves. Accordingly, I have always
encouraged this disposition, which, when preserved within due
bounds, is one of the greatest benefits that can possibly be
acquired. To enable you to think with advantage, I not only
regulated your tasks in such a manner as to exercise your judg-
ment, but extended them for you beyond the mechanical routine
of study usually adopted in schools.'* None of the masters of
the high schools of the present day could do as much under
the very scientific system which limits their freedom of action

* Scadding's * Toronto of Old,' p. 161.

32 The Intellect aal Development

in the educational training of their scholars. But whilst the
wealthier classes in the larger centres of population could avail
themselves of the services of such able teachers as the late
Bishop of Toronto, the mass of people were left in a state of
ignorance. The good schools were controlled by clergymen of
the different denominations ; in fact, the Church of England
was nearly dominant in such matters in those early times, and
it must be admitted that there was a spirit abroad in the pro-
vince which discredited all attempts to place the education of
the masses on a more liberal basis.

The Union of 1840 and the extension of the political rights
of the people gave a new impulse to useful and practical legis'
lation in a country whose population commenced from that
time to increase very rapidly. In 1841, 1843 and 1844 mea-
sures were passed for the improvement of the school system of
both provinces. In 1846, the system of compulsory taxation
for the support of public schools was, for the first time, embodied
in the law, and education at last made steady progress. According
as experience showed the necessity of changes, the Legislature
improved the educational system of both provinces — these
changes having been continued to be made since Confederation,
In Lower Canada, the names of two men will always be honour-
ably associated with the working out of the School Law, and
these are Dr. Meilleur and Hon. Mr. Chauveau, the latter of
whom succeeded in establishing Normal Schools at Montreal

of the Canadian People, 33

^nd Quebec. In the Province of Ontario, Egerton E-yerson

iias perpetuated his name from one end of the country to the

other, where the young are being educated in large, comfortable

school-houses by a class of teachers whose qualifications, on the

whole, are of a high order.

Great as has been the progress of education in Quebec, yet

it must be admitted that it is in some respects behind that of

Ontario. The buildings are inferior, the teachers less efficient,

and insufficiently paid in many cases — and efficiency, no doubt,

depends in a great measure on the remuneration. The ratio

of children who are ignorant of the elements of knowledge is

greater than in the Province of Ontario, where, it must be

remembered, there is more wealth and, perhaps, more ambition

among the people generally. Still the tendency in Quebec is

in the direction of progress, and as the people become better

off, they will doubtless be induced to work out their system,

on the whole so admirable, with greater zeal and energy.

In the Province of Ontario every child can receive a free

-education, and can pass from the Public School to the High

-School or Collegiate Institute, and thence to the University,

where the fees are small and many scholarships are offered to

the industrious student. The principles which lie at the basis

of the system are local assessment to supplement State aid ;

thorough inspection of all schools ; ensuring the best teachers

by means of Normal Schools and competitive examinations,
2

34 The Intellectual Development

complete equipment, graded examinations, and separate school?.
The State recognises its obligation to the child, not only by con-
tributing pecuniary aid, but by exercising a general supervision,
by means of a Superintendent in Quebec and by a Minister of
the Crown in Ontario. The system of Ontario, which has been
the prototype for the legislation of all the smaller provinces,
is eclectic, for it is the result of a careful examination of the
systems that prevail in the United States, Prussia, and Ireland.
As in the larger provinces, much apathy was shown in Nova
Scotia for many years on the subject of the education of the peo-
ple. Unhappily this apathy lasted much longer ; for the census
of 1861 proved that out of a population of 284,000 persons
over five years of age, no less than 81,469 could not read a
printed page, and 114,877 could not write their names. It was
not till 1 S64 that Sir Charles Tupper, then Premier, brought
in a comprehensive measure containing the best features of
the Ontario system ; and the result has been a remarkable
development in the education of the province. In New Bruns-
wick, where the public schools were long in a very inferior state
— though parish schools had been established as early i^s 1823
— the system was remodelled, in 1871, on that of Ontario, though
no provision was made for Separate Schools — an omission which
has created much bitterness in the province, as the political
history of Canada for the subsequent years abundaritly testifies.
In Prince Edward Island the first free schools were established

of the Canadian People, 35

in 1852, and further improvements have been made of recent
years. In British Columbia, the Legislature has adopted sub-
stantially the Ontario School Law with such modifications as
are essential to the different circumstances of a sparse popula-
tion. In the North-west, before the formation of the Province
of Manitoba, education was in a much better condition than the
isolation and scattered state of the population would have led
one to expect. In 1857 there were seventeen schools in the
settlements, generally under the supervision of the clergy of the
Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian bodies. In the
Collegiate School, managed by the Church of England, and sup-
ported, like all other institutions in the country, by contribu-
tions from abroad, -^schylus, Herodotus, Thucydides and Livy
were read with other classics besides mathematics. In 1871 a
school law of a liberal character was passed, provision being
made for Protestant and Roman Catholic schools separately.

The higher branches of education have been taught from a
very early date in the history of all the provinces. In the
Jesuit College, the Quebec Seminary, and other Roman Catho-
lic institutions founded in Montreal, St.IIyacinthe, Three Rivers,
and Nicolet, young men could always be educated for the priest-
hood, or receive such higher education as was considered neces-
sary in those early times. The Quebec Seminary always occupied
a foremost position as an educational institution of the higher
order, and did much to foster a love for learning among those

30 The Intellectual Development

classes who were able to enjoy the advantages it offered them.*
It has already been noticed that a Grammar School system was
established in the years of the first settlement of Ontario. Gover-
nor Simcoe first suggested the idea of a Provincial University,
and valuable lands were granted by George III., in 1798, for
that purpose. The University of Toronto, or King's College,
as it was first (jailed, was established originally under the aus-
pices of the Church of England, and was endowed in 1828, but
it was not inaugurated and opened until 1843. Upper Canada
College, intended as a feeder to the University, dates back as far
as the same time, when it opened with a powerful array of
teachers, drawn for the most part from Cambridge. In 1834,
the Wesleyan Methodists laid the foundation of Victoria Col-
lege, at Cobourg, and it was incorporated in 1841, as a Univer-
sity, with the well-known Rev. Dr. Ryerson as its first Presi-
dent. The Kirk of Scotland established Queen's College, at
Kingston, in 1841, and the Presbyterian Church of Canada,
Knox's College, at Toronto, in 1844. The Roman Catholics
founded Regiopolis, at Kingston, in 1846 ; St. Joseph's College,
at Ottawa, in 1846 ; St. Michael's, at Toronto, in 1852. Trinity

* Mr. Buller, in his Educational Report to Lord Durham, says : ' I spsnt
some hours in the experimental lecture-room of the eminent Professor M.
Casault, and I think that I saw there the best and most extensive set of phi-
losophic apparatus which is yet to be found in the Colonies of British North
America. The buildings are extensive, and its chambers airy and clean; it
has a valuable library, and a host of professors and masters. It secures to
the student an extensive course of education.'

of the CavMclian People. 37

College, under the auspices of the Church of England, was the
issue of the successful effort that was made, in 1849, to throw
King's College open to all denominations. Bishop Strachan deter-
mined never to lend his countenance to what he called * a God-
less University,' and succeeded in founding an institution which
has always occupied a creditable position among the higher
educational establishments of the country. The Baptists esta-
blished the Woodstock Literary Institute in 1857 ; the Episco-
pal Methodists, Albert College, at Belleville, in 1866 ; and the
Evangelical section of the Church of England, in I878,obtainei
a charter for Huron College, under the name of the Western
University of London.

But the gieat Province of Ontario cannot lay claim to the
honour of having established the first Colleges with University
powers in British North America. King's College at Windsor,
in Nova Scotia— the old home of ' Sam Slick '—was the first in-
stitution of a high order founded in the provinces, its history
as an academy going as far back as 1788, when Upper Canada
had no government of its own. This institution has always re-
mained under the control of the Church of England, and con-
tinues to hold a respectable position among educational institu-
tions. Dalhousie College was established at Halifax in 1820,
chiefly through the efforts of the Presbyterian Church. In 1831
the Baptists founded Acadia in Horton, and in 1843 the Wes-
leyans an Academy at Sackville, N.B.-a neutral ground as

38 Tlte Intellectual Develoi'mient

it were — which was afterwards elevated to the dio;nitv of a
University. The Catholics founded St. Mary's at Halifax in
1840, and St. Francois Xavier at Antigonishe in 1855. In 1876
the experiment was commenced, at Halifax, of a University to
hold examinations in arts, law, and medicine, and to confer de-
grees. In New Brunswick, King's College was established at
Fredericton in 1828 under the control of the Church of England,
but in 1858 it was made non-sectarian under the designation of
the University of New Brunswick. Even the little Provinces
of Prince Edward Island and Manitoba have aspirations in the
same way, for the University of ^Manitoba was established a
year or two ago, and the Prince of Wales College followed the
visit of His Royal Highness to Charlottetown in 1860.

The establishment of Laval University was an important
event in the annals of education of the Province of Quebec.
Bishop Bourget of Montreal first suggested the idea of interest-
ing the Quebec Seminary in the project. The result was the
visit of the Principal, M. Louis Casault, to Europe, where he
obtained a Boyal charter, and studied the best university sys-
tems. The charter was signed in 1852, and the Pope approved
the scheme, and authorized the erection of chairs of theology and
the conferring of decjrees. The Universitv of McGill is an older
institution than Laval. The noble bequest to which it owes
its origin was for many years a source of expensive litigation,
and it was not till 1821 that it received a charter, and only in

of the Canadian People, 3D

1829 was it able to commence operations. In fact, it cannot be
said to have made any substantial progress till 1854, when it
was re-organized with a distinguished Kova Scotian scientist
as its Principal— Dr. J. W. Dawson— to whom his native i^ro-
vinoe previously owed much for his efforts to improve education
at a time when it was in a very low state, owing to the apathy
of the Legislature. Bishop's College at Lennoxville was es-
tablished in 1844, for the education of members of the Church
of England, through the exertions of Bishop Mountain, but it
was not till 1853 that it w^as erected into a University. Be-
sides these institutions, the Roman Catholics and other denomi-
nations have various colleges and academies at different impor-
tant points— such as St. Hyacinth e, Montreal, Masson and
L'Assomption Colleges, The Government of the Dominion have
also established, at Kingston, an institution where young men
may receive a training to fit them for the military profession
— an institution something on the model of West Point— the
practical benefits of which, however, are not as yet appreciable
in a country like this, which has no regular army, and cannot
afford employment suitable for the peculiar studies necessarily
followed in the Academy. The Ontario Government are also
trying the experiment, on an expensive scale, of teaching young
men agriculture, practically and scientifically— a repetition, under
more favoui^able circumstances, of what was tried centuries ago
by the religious communities of Quebec. Nor, in reviewing the

40 The Intellectual Development

means of mental equipment in Canada, must we forget the many
establishments which are now provided for the education of
young women outside of tlie Public and High Schools, the most
notable being the Koraan Catholic Convents of Noire Dame and
Sacre Coeur, Ottawa Ladies' College, Wesleyan Ladies' College
at Hamilton, Brantford Ladies' College, Bishop Strachan School
at Toronto, Helmuth Ladies' College at London, Albert College,
and Woodstock Literary Institute, besides many minor institu-
tions of more or less merit. Several of our universities have
also shown a liberal progressive spirit in acknowledging the
right of women to participate in the higher education, hitherto
confined to men in this country — an illustration in itself of the
intellectual development that is now going on among us.

When we proceed to review the statistics of educational pro-
gress, they present very gratifying results. The following table,
carefully prepared to the latest date, from the voluminous official
returns annually presented to the difi'erent Legislatures of the
Provinces of Canada, will be quite sufficient for the purposes of

this paper :

Total number of public educational institutions in the Dominion 13,800

Number of pupils in attendance throughout the year 925,000

Amount now annually contributed by the State and People $6,700,000

Number of Colleges and Universities 21

Number of Undergraduates in Arts, Law, Medicine, Theology,

about 2,200

"""^"^^^ »

Number of Superior and High Schools, including Academies and

Collegiate Institutes 443

Aggregate attendance in same 141 ,000

of the Canadian People. 41

Number of Normal Schools

Number of students in same i 400

'^"'T/on';*^.''''^'^ '"^ ^''*^"'' ^'^""" during .30 years (from 18.10 to
1880,) for erection and repairs of School-houses, fuel and
contingencies, about $15,000,000

1 utal amount expended m same province, for all educational pur-

poses dunng same period, upwards of «U)0 000 000

Total amount (approximate), a vailable for public school purposes', " ' '
m all Canada, since Confederation, i.e. in 12 years .' $G4,000,00O

These statistics prove conclusively, that Canada occupies a
foremost position among communities for its zeal in developing
the education of the people, irrespective of class. The progress
that has been made within forty years may be also illustrated by
the fact that, in 1839, there were in all the public and private
schools of British Korth America only some 92,000 young pec-
pie, out of a total population of 1,440,000, or about one in fifteen,
whilst now the proportion may be given at one in four, if we in-
elude the students in all educational institutions. But it must
be admitted, that it is to Ontario we must look for illustrations
of the most perfect educational system. There, from the very
commencement, the admirable municipal system which was one
of the best results of the Union of 1840, enabled the people to
prove their public spirit by carrying out with great energy the
difierent measures passed by the Legislature for the promotion
of Public Schools. * By their constitution, the municipal and
school corporations are reflections of the sentiments and feelings

^ o

* The educational statistics preceding 1850 are not easily ascertained, and in any case
are small. I have not been able to obtain similar figures for other provinces ; in fact in
some cases, they are not to be ascertained with any degree of accuracy

42 The Intellectual Development

of the people witliin their respective circles of jurisdiction ; their
powers are adequate to meet all the economic exigencies of each
municipality, whether of schools or roads, of the diffusion of
knowledge, or the development of wealth.'* As a result of such
public spirit, w^e find in Ontario the finest specimens of school
architecture, and the most perfect school apparatus and appli-
ances of every kind, calculated to assist the teacher and pupil,
and to bring into play their best mental faculties. But there can
be no doubt that the success of the system rests in a very great
measure on the effort that has been made to improve the status
of the teacher. The schoolmaster is no longer a man who re-
sorts to education because everything else has failed. He is no
longer one of that class of ' adventurers, many of them persons
of the lowest grade,' who, we are told, infested the rural dis-
tricts of Upper Canada in olden times, * wheresoever they found
the field unoccupied ; pursuing their speculation with pecuniary
profit to themselves, but with certainly little advantage to the
moral discipline of their youthful pupils. 't The fact that such
men could be instructors of youth, half a century ago, is of itself
a forcible illustration of the public indifference to the question of
popular education. All the legislation in Ontario, and in the
other provinces as well, has been framed with the object of ele-

* Hon. Adam Crooks, Minister of Education, Report on Educational In-
stitutions of Ontario, for Philadelx>liia Exhibition, p. 45.

t Preston's * Three Years in Canada' (1837- 9), p. 110, Vol. ii.

of the Canadian People, 43

rating the moral and intellectual standing of a class on whose
efforts so much of the future happiness and prosperity of thi^
country depends. On the whole, the object has been success-
fully achieved, and the schoolmasters of Ontario are, as a rule, a
superior class of men. Yet it must be admitted that much can
still be done to improve their position. Education, we all know,
does not necessarily bring with it refinement ; that can only
come by constant communication with a cultured societv, which
is not always, in Canada, ready to admit the teacher on equal
terms. It may also be urged that the teacher, under the system
as now perfected, is far too much of an automaton— a mere
machine, wound up to proceed so far and no farther. He is
not allowed sufficient of that free volition which would enable
him to develop the best qualities of his pupils, and to elevate
their general tone. Polite manners among the pupils are just
as valuable as orderly habits. Teachers cannot strive too much
to check all rudeness among the youth, many of whom have
few opportunities to cultivate those social amenities which make
life so pleasant, and also do so much to soften the difficulties
of one's journey through life.* Such discipline cannot be too

*Sr

TZt *^^^^^l«f EducaUonal Monthly^ to the same purport : * The tone
of the Schools might be largely raised and the tender and pla.tic nature of
the young mmds under training be directed into sympathy with the noble

vvork of trt"^; ^ .''T'^ "' """'^ '^ *^^ re^-t^lA.rn which hamper, the
vvoik of the High-School teacher, the masters of the Public Schools have
more opportunity to make individuality tell in the conduct of the school,
and of encircling the sphere of their work ^^-ith a bright zone of cultivation

44 The Intellectual Development

rigidly followed in a country of a Saxon race, whose bricsquerie
of manner and speech is a natural heritage, just as a spirit of
courtesy seems innate in the humblest habitants who have not
yet forgotten, among the rude conditions of their American life,
that prominent characteristic of a Gallic people.!

It is quite probable that the Public School system of this
country is still defective in certain respects, which can only be
satisfactorily improved with the progress of experience. The re-
marks of a writer in a recent number of a popular American
magazine, Scribnefs Monthly, may have some application to our-
selves, when he says that there is now-a-days ' too decided an
aim to train everybody to pass an examination in everything;'
that the present system * encourages two virtues — to forgive and
forget, in time to forgive the examiner, and to forget the subject
of the examination.* The present writer does not wish— in fact,
it is rather beyond the limit he has marked out for this review
— to go into any lengthy discussion of matters which are worthy,
however, of consideration by all those interested in perfecting

and refinement. But the Public School teacher will accomplish much if,
reverently and sympathetically, he endeavours to preserve the freshness and
in^fenuousness of childhood and, by the influence of his own example, while
leading the pupil up the golden ladder of mental acquisition, he encou-
rages the cultivation of those graces of life which are the best adornments
of youth.'— Feb. 1879.

t More than forty years ago, Mr. Buller, in his report to Lord Durham
on the State of Education in Lower Canada, pays this tribute to the pea-
santry : * Withal this is a people eminently qualified to reap advantages from
education ; they are shrewd and intelligent, never morose, most amiable in
their domestic relations, and most graceful in their manners.'

of the Canadian People. 45

the details of the educational system in Ontario; but he may
refer, en passanl, to the somewhat remarkable multiplication of
text-books, many of which are carelessly got up, simply to gratify
the vanity and fill the purse of some educationist, anxious to
get into print. Grammar also appears to be a lost art in the
Public Schools, where the students are perplexed by books, not
simple, but most complex in their teachings, calculated to be.
wilder persons of mature analytical minds, and to make one
appreciate more highly than ever the intelligible lessons of Len-
nie's homely little volume, which was the favourite in those
times when education was not quite so much reduced to a
scienca But these are, after all, only among the details which
can be best treated by teachers themselves, in those little parlia-
ments which have grown up of recent years, and where educa-
tionists have admirable opportunities of comparing their experi-
eaces, and suggesting such improvements as may assist in the
intellectual development of the young, and at the same time
elevate their own social standing in this country. On the whole,
Canada has much reason for congratulation in possessing a
system which brings education in every province within "the
reach of all, and enables a lad to cultivate his intellectual facul-
ties to a point sufficient to place iiim in the years of his
mature manhood in the highest position that this country ofF.rs
to its sons. As to the objection, not .infrequently urged, that
the tendency of the public school education of this country is to

46 The Intellectual Development

withdraw the young from the industrial avocations of life, it
may be forcibly met by the fact, that it is to the New England
States we look for the best evidences of industrial, as well as
intellectual, development. The looms of Massachusetts and
Connecticut are not less busy — the inventive genius of those
States is not less fertile, because their public schools are teem-
ing with their youth. But it is not necessary to go to the neigh-
bouring States to give additional force to these remarks ; for
in no part of the Dominion, is there so much industrial energy
as in the Province of Ontario, where the school svstem is the
best. An English gentleman, who has devoted more attention
than the majority of his countrymen to the study of colonial
subjects, has well observed on this point : 'A key to one of the
principal causes of their successful progress in the development
of industrial art is probably to be found in their excellent and
superior educational system.'*

A review of the University system of this country, on the
perfection of which depends the higher culture of the people,
shows us that the tendency continues to be in the direction of
strengthening the denominational institutions. The Universities
of Toronto and McGill are the principal non-sectarian institu-
tions of a higher class, which appear to be on a popular and
substantial basis. It is natural enough that each denomination
should rally around a college, which rests on a religious basis.

* Address of Mr. Frederick Young on the Paris Exhibition, before the
Royal Colonial Institute, 1878-9.

of the Canadian People. 47

Parents seem in not a few cases to appreciate very highly the
moral security that the denominational system appears to afford
to their sons — a moral security which they believe to be wanting
in the case of non-sectarian institutions. Even those colleges
which do not shut their doors to young men of any particular
creed continue to be more or less supported by the denominations
under whose auspices they were first established. No doubt, these
colleges, sufficiently numerous for a sparsely peopled country like
Canada, are doing a valuable work in developing the intellec-
tual faculties of the youth of the several provinces. It is a
question, however, if the perpetuation of a system which multi-
plies colleges with University powers in each province, will tend
to produce the soundest scholarship in the end. What we want
even now are not so many * Admirable Crichtons ' with a smat-
tering of all sorts of knowledge, but men recognised for their
proficiency in special branches of learning. Where there is
much competition, there must be sooner or later an inclination
to lower the standard, and degrade the value of the diplomas
issued at the close of a college course. Theoretically, it seems
preferable that in a great province like Ontario, the diplomas
should emanate from one Central University authority rather
than from a number of colleges, each pursuing its own curricu-
lum. No doubt it is also quite possible to improve our higher
system of education so as to make it more in conformity with
the practical necessities of the country. An earnest discussion

48 The Intellectual Development

has been going on for some time in the United States as to the
inferiority of the American University System compared with
that of Germany.* John-Hopkins University in Baltimore,
Michigan University, and Cornell University, are illustrations
of the desire to enlarge the sphere of the education of the peo-
ple. If we had the German system in this country, men could
study classics or mathematics, or science, or literature, or law,
or medicine, in a national University with a sole view to their
future avocations in life. It is true, in the case of law and medi-
cine Laval, Toronto, McGill and other Universities in the pro-
vinces have organized professional courses ; and there is no doubt
a desire on the part of the educational authorities in these insti-

* An article, in the July number of Harpei'^s for 1880, by so distinguished
an authority as Professor Draper, is well worthy of perusal by those who
wish to pursue this subject at greater length. Among other things he says
(pp. 253-4) : * There is therefore in America a want of a school offering oppor-
tunities to large and constantly increasing classes of men for pursuing pro-
fessional studies — a want which is deeply felt, and which sends every year
many students and millions of dollars out of the country. Where in the
United States can a young man prepare hioaself thoroughly to become a
teacher of the ancient classics. A simple college course is not enough. The
Germans require that their teachers of Latin and Greek should pursue the
classics as a specialty for three years at a University after having completed
the gymnasium which, as a classical school, would be universally admitted
to rank with our colleges. . . . If an American (or a Canadian) wishes
to pursue a special course in history, politics and political economy, mathe-
matics, philosophy, or in any one of many other studies lying outside of the
three profesi^ions, law, medicine, and theology, he must go to Europe. Again,
whoever desires even in theology, law and medicine to select from one branch
as a specialty, must go to Europe to do so.'

Hon. Mr. Blake, in his last address as Chancellor of Toronto University,
also dwelt very forcibly on the necessity of post graduate courses of study in
special subjects. — Canada Educational Monthly, Oct. 1880.

of the Canadian People, 49

tutions to ensure proficiency so far as the comparatively limited
means at their command permit them. It is certainly a note-
worthy fact—lately pointed out by Mr. Blake— that during the
last five years only one fourth of the entrants into Osgoode Hall
were graduates of any University, and three-fourths were men
who had taken no degree, and yet there is no profession which
demands a higher mental training than the Bar. In medical
education there is certainly less laxity than in the United States;
all the efibrts of medical men being laudably directed to lengthen
the course and develop the professional knowledge of the stu-
dents. Still, not a few of our young men show their appreciation
of the need of even a wider knowledge and experience than is
afibrded in the necessarily limited field of Canadian study, by
spending some time in the great schools and hospitals of Europe.
Of course, in a new country, where there is a general desire
to get to the practical work of life with as little delay as
possible, the tendency to be carefully guarded against is the
giving too large facilities to enter professions where life and
property are every day at stake. It is satisfactory, however, to
know that the tendency in Canada is rather in the other direc-
tion, and that an institution like McGill College, which is a
Medical College of high reputation, is doing its best with the
materials at command, to perfect the medical knowledge of
those who seek its generous aid. No doubt the time is fast
approaching when the State will be obliged to give greater as-

50 The TnteUectual Development

sistance to Toronto University ao as to enable it to enter on
a broader and more liberal system of culture, commensurate
with the development of science and literature. Unless the
State makes a liberal effort in this direction, we are afraid it
will be some time before University College will be in a position
to imitate the praiseworthy example set by Columbia College,
which, from its situation in the great commercial metropolis,
and the large means at its command, seems likely to be the great
American University of the future. It must be remembered
that the intellectual requirements of the Dominion must con-
tinue to increase with great rapidity, since there is greater wealth
accumulating, and a praiseworthy ambition for higher culture.
The legislature and the public service are making very heavy
requisitions on the intellect of this much governed country,
with its numerous Parliaments and Cabinets and large body of
officials, very many of whom are entrusted with the most respon-
sible duties, demanding no ordinary mental qualifications.*

The public schools, collegiate institutes, and universities, apart
from the learned professions, must also every year make larger
demands on the intellectual funds of the Dominion, and as the
remuneration of the masters and professors in the educational

* It is a fact worthy of mention in this connection, that in the English
House of Commons dissolved in ] 880, 236, or more than a third out of 658,
members were Oxford or Cambridge men, while about 180 were ' public school
men,' — the ' public schools ' being Eton and such high class institutions. In
a previous English Cabinet, the majority were Honor men ; Mr. Gladstone
is a double first of Christ Church, Oxford,

of the Canadian People. 51

institutions of this country should in the nature of things im-
prove in the future, our young men must be necessarily stimu-
lated to consider such positions more worthy of a life's de-
Totion. Under such circumstances, it should be the great object
of all true friends of the sound intellectual development of Can-
ada to place our system of higher education on a basis equal
to the exigencies of a practical, prescient age, and no longer cling
to worn out ideas of the past. In order to do this, let the peo-
ple of Ontario determine to establish a national University which
will be worthy of their great province and of the whole Do-
minion. Toronto University seems to have in some measure
around it that aroma of learning, that dignity of age, and that
prestige of historic association which are necessary to the success-
ful establishment of a national seat of learning, and will give
the fullest scope to Canadian talent.

52 The Intellectual Development

CHAPTER III.

JOURNALISM.

"T~N the development of Canadian intellect the newspaper press
has had a very large influence during the past half-century
and more. What the pulpit has done for the moral education
of the people, the press has accomplished for their general culture
■when schools were few and very inferior, and books were rarely
seen throughout the country. When the political rights of the
people were the subject of earnest controversy in the Legis-
latures of the Provinces the press enabled all classes to discuss
public questions with more or less knowledge, and gave a
decided intellectual stimulus, which had a valuable effect in a
young isolated country like Canada. In the days of the French
rSgime there was nob a single printing press in Canada, though
the News Letter was published in Boston as early as 1704.*
It is generally claimed that the first newspaper in Canada, was
the Quebec Gazette^ which was published in 1764, by Brown &
Gilmour, formerly Philadelphia printers, with a subscription list

* The first printing press in America was set up at Cambridge, in the
ninth year of the Charter Government (1639) ; the first document printed
was the ' Freeman's Oath,' then an almanack, and next the Psalms. — 2 Pal-
grave, 45. In 1740, there were no less than eleven journals — only of foolscap
size, however— published in the English Colonies.

('/ the Canadian People. 5.<]

of only one hundred and tifty names. The first issue appeared
on the 2lst June, printed on four folio pages of 18 by 12 inches,
each containing two colunms of small type. The fii-st article was
the prospectus in larger type, in which the promoters promised to
pay particular attention 'to the refined amusements of literature
and the pleasant veins of well-pointed wit ; intei-spersed with
chosen pieces of curious essays, extracted from the most
celebrated authors, blending philosophy with politics, history,
&c.' The conductors also pledged themselves to give no place in'
the paper to ' party prejudices and private scandal '-a pledge
better kept than such promises are generally. There was a
very slender allowance of news from Riga, St. Petez^burg, Lon-
don, New York and Philadelphia ; but there was one ominous
Item, that Parliament was about imposing taxes on the Colonies
though they were without representation in that Parliament'
The latest English news was to the 11th April; the latest
Anaerican to the 7th May. Only two advertisements appeared
-one of a general store, of dry goods, groceries, hardware
all the ollapodrUa necessary in those days ; the other from the
Honourable Commissioner of Customs, waging the public
against making compositions for duties under the Imperial Act.
This sheet, for some years, had no influence on public opinion •
for it continued to be a mere bald summary of news, without
comment on political events. Indeed, when it was fii^t issued
pLe t,me was unfavourable for political discussion, as Quebec'

54 The Iiitellettual Development

had only just become an English possession, and the whole
country was lying torpid under the military administration of
General Murray. It is, however, a fact not very generally known
even yet, except to a few antiquarians, that there was a small
sheet published in British America, called the Halifax Gazette ^*
just twelve years before the appearance of the Quebec paper.
From 17G9 we commence to find regular mention of the Nova
Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, published on Sackville
Street by A. Fleury, who also printed the first Almanac in
Canada, in 1774. One of the first newspapers published in the
Maritime Provinces was the Royal Gazette and New Bruns-
tvick Advertiser, which appeared in 1785 in St. John, just
founded by the American Loyalists. The first paper appeared
in Upper Canada on the establishment of Parliamentary Govern-
ment, and was published by Louis Boy, at Newark, on the 18th
April, 1793, under the title of The Upper Canada Gazette, or
the American Oracle. The sheet was in folio, 15 by 9 J inches,
of coarse, but durable paper — not a characteristic, certainly,
of our great newspapers now-a-days, of which the material is
very flimsy j the impression was fairly executed ; the price was
three dollars a year. In 1794, the form was changed to a quarto,

* In a letter of Secretary Cotterell, written in 1754, to Captain Floyer,
at Piziquid (Windsor), he refers to M. Dandin, a priest in one of the Acadian
settlements : * If he chooses to play the hel eswit in the Halifax Gazette^
he may communicate his matter to the printer as soon as he pleases, as
he will not print it without showing it to me.' — See Murdoch's ' History of
Nova Scotia,' vol. 2, p. 234.

of tlie Canadian People. 55

and one Tiffany had become the proprietor. When the Gazette
was removed to York, in 1800, with all the Government
offices, the Messrs. Tiffany started the Constellation ^ which, Dr.
Scadding tells us, illustrated the jealousy which the people of
the Niagara district felt at seeing York suddenly assume so
much importance ; for one of the writers ironically proposes a
' Stump Act * for the ambitious, though muddy, unkempt little
town, ' so that the people in the space of a few months, may re-
lapse into intoxication with impunity, and stagger home at any
hour of the night without encountering the dreadful apprehen-
sion of broken necks.'

The Constellation only lived a year or two, and then gave
way to the Herald and other papers at subsequent dates ; and
it is an interesting fact, mentioned by the learned antiquarian
of Toronto, that the imposing stone used by Mr. Tiffany, was in
use up to 1870, when the old Niagara Mail, long edited by
Mr. W. Kirby, at last ceased publication. The Gazette and
Oracle continued to be published at York by different printers,
and, like other journals in America, often appeared in variegated
colours — blue being the favourite — in consequence of the
scarcity of white paper. The title, American Oracle^ was drop-
ped from the heading when Dr. Home became the publisher, in
1817 ; it continued to publish official notices, besides meagre
summaries of general news, and some miscellaneous reading
matter.

5Q The Intellectual Development

The second paper in Upper Canada was the Up2)er Canada
Guardian or Freeman's Journal, which was edited and printed
by Joseph Willcox, who fell under the ban of the Lieutenant
Governor for his Liberal opinions. It was printed in 1807,
and exercised much influence for a time as an organ of the
struggling Liberal party. Like others, in those days of political
bitterness, its editor was imprisoned, ostensibly for a breach of
parliamentary privilege, though in reality as a puijishment for
presuming to differ from the governing party ; but, able man as
he undoubtedly was, he marred his career by an infamous deser-
tion to the Americans during the war of 1812, before the ex-
piration of which he was killed. The first newspaper in King
ston, the third in the province, was the Gazette, founded in 1810,
by Stephen Miles, who afterwards became a minister of the
Methodist denomination, and also printed the Grenviile
Gazette, the first journal in the old town of Prescdtt.* The first
daily paper published in British North America, appears to have
been the Daily Advertiser, which appeared in Montreal, in
May, 1833 — the Herald and Gazette being tri- weekly papers at
the time. The Daily Advertiser was issued in the interests of
the Liberals, under the management of the Hon. H. S. Chap-
man, subsequently a judge in New Zealand. One of the chief
inducements held out to subscribers was the regular publication
of full prices current and other commercial information. The

* Morgan's * Bibliotheca Canadensis,' Art. Mibs.

^ the Canadian People. 67

British Whig, of Kingston, was the firet newspaper that
attempted the experiment of a daily issue in Upper Canada.

It is a noteworthy fact, which can be best mentioned here,
that the first newspaper in Three Eirers was the Gazette, pub-
lished by one Stobbs, in 1832, more than two centuries after the
settlement of that town, which has always been in the midst of
the most thickly settled district of Lower Canada. At that
time, newspapers were rapidly gaining ground in Upper Canada
—districts not so old by months or weeks even as Three Elvers
had years, and with a more scattered population, not exceeding
one-fifth of that of the Three Eivers district, could boast of, at
least, one newspaper.*

In 1827, Mr. Jotham Blanchard, the ancestor of a well-
known family of Liberals in the Lower Provinces, established
the first newspaper outside of Halifax, the Colonial Patriot,
at Pictou, a flourishing town on the Straits of Northumber-
land, chiefly settled by the ScotcL

In 1839, Mr. G. Fenety— now 'Queen's Printer' at Frederic-
ton— established the Convmerdal Nmes, at St. John, New Brun-
swick, the first tri-weekly and penny paper in the Maritime
Provinces, which he conducted for a quarter of a century,
until he disposed of it to Mr. Edward Willis, imder whose ed'i-
torial supervision it has always exercised considerable Influence
in the public affairs of the province. The first daily paper
* Quebec Mercury, 1832! ~~ "^ —

58 • The Intellectual Development

published in the Province of Nova Scotia, was the Halifax
Morning Post, appearing in 1845, edited by John H. Crosskill
but it had a brief existence, and tri- weeklies continued to be
published for many years — the old Colonist representing the Con-
servatives, and the Chronicle the Liberals, of the province. The
senior of the press, in the Lower Provinces, however, is the
Acadiari Recorder, the first number of which appeared in 1813.

The only mention I have been able to find of a newspaper in
the brief histories of Prince Edward Island, is of the appear-
ance, in 1823, of the Register, printed and edited by J. D.
Haszard, who distinguished himself at the outset of his career
by a libel on one of the Courts before which he was summoned
with legal promptitude — ^just as printers are now-a days in
Manitoba — and dismissed with a solemn reprimand, on condition
of revealing the authors of the libel. The remarks of the Chan-
cellor (who appears to have been also the Governor of the
Island), in dismissing the culprit, are quite unique in their way.
* I compassionate your youth and inexperience ; did I not do so,
I would lay you by the heels long enough for you to remember
it. You have deli s^ered your evidence fairly, plainly and clearly,
and as became a man j but I caution you, when you publish any-
thing again, keep clear, Sir, of a Chancellor. Beware, Sir, of a
Chancellor.'* 3Iany other papers were published in later years;
the most prominent hemg the Islander, which appeared in 1842,

* Campbell's Hist, of P. E. I.

of the Canadian People. 59

and continued in existence for forty-two years. Tiais paper
along with the Examiner, edited by the Hon. Edward Whelan
an.an of brilliant parts, now dead, had much influence over
pohtical affairs in the little colony.

The history of the newspaper press of British Columbia does
not go beyond twenty-t wo years. The first attempt at journalistic
enterprise was the Victoria Gazette, a daily published in 1858
by two Americans, who, however, stopped the issue in the follow-
ing year. The next paper was the Courrier de la Nou.elle
CaMonie printed by one Thornton, an Anglo-Frenchman, who
bad travelled all over the world. The somewhat notorious
Marnott, of the San Francisco Neus-LUUr, also, in 1859, pub-
hshed the Vancou .erlsland Gazette, but only for a while. It is a
noteworthy fact, that the Cariboo ^«„W_„ow no longer in
existence-was printed on a press sent out to Mgr. DemeL by
the Roman Catholics of Paris. Even the little settlement of
Emoiy has had its newspaper, the Inland Sentinel. The best
known newspaper in the Pacific Province has always been
Bmce 1858. the BrUi^, Colonist, owned and edited originally by
Hon. Amorde Cosmos, for some time Premier, and now a well-
known member of the House of Commons, who made his paper
a power in the little colony by his enterprise and forcible ex-
pression of opinion. The Standard is also another paper of
political influence, and is published daily, like the Colonist.
Two papers are printed in New Westminster, and one in
Nanaimo ; the total number in the province being five

60 The Intellectual Development

In the previous paragraphs, I have confined myself to the
mention of a few facts in the early history of journalism in
each of the Provinces of Canada. Proceeding now to a more
extended review, we find that a few papers exercised from the
outset a very decided influence in political affairs, and it is to
these I propose now to refer, especially, before coming down to
later times of extended political rights and consequent expan-
sion of newspaper enterprise. The oldest newspaper now in
Canada is the Montreal Gazette, which was first published as far
back as 1787, by one Mesplet, in the French language. It
ceased publication for a time, but reappeared about 1794, with
Lewis Roy as printer. On the death of the latter, the establish-
ment was assumed by E. Edwards, at No. 135 St. Paul Street,
then the fashionable thoroughfare of the town. It was only a
little affair, about the size of a large foolscap sheet, printed
in small type in the two languages, and containing eight broad
columns. In 1805, the Quebec Mercury was founded by
Thomas Cary, a Nova Scotian lawyer, as an organ of the
British inhabitants, who, at that time, formed a small but com-
paratively wealthy and influential section of the community.
Mr. Cary was a man of scholarly attainments and a writer of
considerable force. The Mercury had hardly been a year in
existence, when its editor experienced the difficulty of writing
freely in those troublous times, as he had to apologize for a too
bold censure of the action of the dominant party in the Legisla-

of the Canadian People. 61

ture. But this contretemps did not prevent him continuing in
that vein of sarcasm of which he was a master, and evoking,
consequently, the ire of the leading Liberals of those days —
Stuart, Yanfelson, Papineau, Viger, and others. One of the
results of his excessive freedom of speech was an attempt to
punish him for a breach of privilege ; but he remained concealed
in his own house, where, like the conspirators of old times, he
had a secret recess made for such purposes, and where he con-
tinued hurling his philippics against his adversaries with all
that power of invective which would be used by a conscientious
though uncompromising old Tory of those days, when party ex-
citement ran so high. The Quebec Gazette was at that time,
as in its first years, hardly more than a mere resume of news.*
Hon. John Neilson assumed its editorship in 1796, and continued
more or less to influence its columns whilst he remained in the
Lower Canada Legislature. In 1808, Mr. Neilson enlarged the
size of his paper, and published it twice a week, in order to
meet the growing demand for political intelligence. The Gazette
was trammelled for years by the fact that it was semi-official,
and the vehicle of public notifications, but when, subsequently,!

* From 1783 to 1792, the paper scarcely published a political ' leader,
and so fearful were printers of offending men in power, that the Montreal
Gazette^ so late as 1790, would not even indicate the locality in which a
famous political banquet was held, on the occasion of the formation of a
Constitutional Club, the principal object of which was to spread political
knowledge throughout the country. See Gameau II. 197 and 206.

t In 1823, an Official Gazette was published by Dr. Fisher, Queen's Printer,
Canadian Magazine,' p. 470.

62 Tlie Intellectual Development

this difficulty no longer existed, tlie paper, either under his own
or his son's management, was independent, and, on the whole,
moderate in tone whenever it expressed opinions on leading
public questions. Mr. Neilson, from 1818, when he became a
member of the Legislature, exercised a marked influence on the
political discussions of his time, and any review of his career as
journalist and politician would be necessarily a review of the
political history of half a century. A constant friend of the
French Canadians, a firm defender of British connection, never
a violent, uncompromising partisan, but a man of cool judg-
ment, he was generally able to perform good service to his
party and country. As a public writer he was concise and argu-
mentative, and influential, through the belief that men had in his
sincerity and honesty of purposCc

In 1806, there appeared in Quebec a new organ of public
opinion, which has continued to the present day to exercise
much influence on the politics of Lower Canada. This was the
Canadien, which was established in the fall of that year, chiefly
through the exertions of Pierre B^dard, who was for a long while
the leader of the French party in the Legislature, and at the
same time chief editor of the new journal, which at once assumed
a strong position as the exponent of the principles with which
its French Canadian conductors were so long identified. It
waged a bitter war against its adversaries, and no doubt had an
important share in shaping the opinions and educating the public

of the Canadian People. §3

mmd of the majority in the province. If it too frequently ap-
pealed to national prejudices, and assumed an uncompromising
attitude when counsels of conciliation and moderation would
have been wiser, we must make allowance for the hot temper of
those times, and the hostile antagonism of .^ces and parties
wh,ch the leaders on both sides were too often ready to foment
The editor of the Canadien was also punished by imprisonment'
for months, and the issue of the paper was stopped for a while
on the order of Chief Justice Sewell, in the exciting times of
that most arbitrary of military governors. Sir James Craig. The
action of the authorities in this matter is now admitted to have
been tyrannical and unconstitutional, and it is certainly an illus-
tration of human frailty that this same M. Bedard, who suffered
not a httle from the injustice of his political enemies, should
have shown such weakness-or, shall we say, Clu-istian for-
feearance-in accepting, not long afterwards, a judgeship from
the same Government which he had always so violently opposed
and from which he had suffered so much.

Whilst the Canadien, Gazette, and iM^rcury were, in Lower
Canada, ably advocating their respective views on the questions
of the day, the Press of Upper Canada was also exhibiting evi-
dences of new vigour. The Observer was established at York,
in 1820, and the Canadian Freeman in 1825, the latter an
Opposition paper, well printed, and edited by Francis Col'lina
who had also suffered at the hands of the ruling powers An

64 The Intellectual Development

anecdote is related of the commencement of the journalistic ca-
reer of this newspaper man of old times, which is somewhat
characteristic of the feelings which animated the ruling powers
of the day with respect to the mass of people who were not with-
in the sacred pale. When Dr. Home gave up the publication of
the Gazette^ in whose office Collins had been for some time a com-
positor, the latter applied for the position, and was informed that
* the office would be given to none but a gentleman.^

This little incident recalls the quiet satire which Goldsmith
levels in *The Good-natured Man,^ against just such absurd sen-
sitiveness as Collins had to submit to : —

First Fellow — The Squire has got spunk in him.

Second Fellow — I loves to hear him sing, bekeays he never gives us no-
thing that's low.

Third Fellow — O, damn anything that's low ; I cannot bear it.

Fourth Fellow — The genteel thing is the genteel thing any time, if so
be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly.

Third Fellow — I likes the maxum of it. Master Muggins. What,
though I am obligated to dance a bear, a man ' us»y be a gentleman for all
that. May this be my poison, if my bear ever dances but to the very gen-
teelest of tunes — 'Water Parted,' or ' The Minuet in Ariadne.'

No doubt this little episode made the disappointed applicant
inveterate against the Government, for he commenced, soon
afterwards, the publication of an Opposition paper, in which he
exhibited the rude ability of an unpolished and half-educated
man.*

Mr. W. Lyon Mackenzie appeared as a journalist for the first
time in 1824, at Queenston, where he published the Colonial

* C. Lindsey's *Life of W. Lyon Mackenzie,' Vol. I., P- 112, note.

of. the Canadian People. 65

Advocate, on the model of Cobbett's JRegister, containing 32
pages, a form afterwards changed to the broad sheet. From the
first it illustrated the original and eccentric talent of its inde-
pendent founder. Italics and capitals, index hands and other
typographic symbols, were scattered about with remarkable pro-
fusion, to give additional force and notoriety to the editorial
remarks which were found on every page, according as the whim
and inspiration of the editor dictated. The establishment of the
paper was undoubtedly a bold attempt at a time when the pro-
vince was but sparsely settled, and the circulation necessarily
limited by the rarity of post-offices even in the more thickly-
populated districts, and by the exorbitant rates of postage which
amounted to eight hundred dollars a-year on a thousand copies.
More than that, any independent expression of opinion was sure
to evoke the ire of the orthodox in politics and religion, which
in those days were somewhat closely connected. The Advocate
was soon removed to York, and became from that time a politi-
cal power, which ever and anon excited the wrath of the leaders
of the opposite party, who induced some of their followers at
last to throw the press and type of the obnoxious journal into
the Bay, while they themselves, following the famous Wilkes'
precedent, expelled Mackenzie from the legislature, and in de-
fiance of constitutional law, declared him time and again ineli-
gible to sit in the Assembly. The despotic acts of the reigning

party, however, had the efiecb of awakening the masses to the
4

GG Ihe Intdledaal Development

necessity of supporting Mr. Mackenzie, and made him eventually
a prominent figure in the politics of those disturbed times. The
Advocate changed its name, a short time previous to 1837, to
the Constitution^ and then disappeared in the troublous days that
ended with the flight of its indiscreet though honest editor.
Contemporaneous with the Advocate were the Loyalist, the Cou-
rier, and the Patriot — the latter having first appeared at York
in 1833. These three journals were Conservative, or rather
Tory organs, and were controlled by Mr. Fothergill, Mr. Gur-
net t, and Mr. Dal ton. Mr. Gurnett was for years after the
Union the Police Magistrate of Toronto, while his old antago-
nist was a member of the Legislature, and the editor of the
Message, a curiosity in political literature. Mr. Thomas Dalton
was a very zealous advocate of British connection, and was one
of the first Colonial writers to urge a Confederation of the Pro-
vinces ; and if his zeal frequently carried him into the intem-
perate discussion of public questions the ardour of the times
must be for him, as for his able, unselfish opponent, Mr. Mac-
kenzie, the best apology.

Mrs. Jameson, who was by no means inclined to view Canadian
affairs with a favourable eye, informs us that in 1836 there were
some forty papers published in Upper Canada ; of these, three
were religious, namely, the Christian Guardian, the Wesleycin
Advocate, and the Church. A paper in the 'German language
was published at Berlin, in the Gore Settlement, for the use of

of the Canadian People, 67

the German settlers. Lower Canadian and American newspapers
were also circulated in great numbers. She deprecates the
abusive, narrow tone of the local papers, but at the same time
admits — a valuable admission from one far from prepossessed in
favour of Canadians — that, on the whole, the press did good
in the absence and scarcity of books. In some of the provincial
papers she * had seen articles written with considerable talent ; '
among other things, ' a series of letters, signed Evans, on the sub-
ject of an education fitted for an agricultural people, and writ-
ten with infinite good sense and kindly feeling.' At this time
the number of newspapers circulated through the post-oliice in
Upper Canada, and paying postage, was : Provincial papers,
178,065; United States and other foreign papers, 149,502.
Adding 100,000 papers stamped, or free, there were some
427,567 papers circulated yearly among a population of 370,
000, * of whom perhaps one in fifty could read.' The narrow-
mindedness of the country journals generally would probably
strike an English litterateur like Mrs. Jameson with much
force ; little else was to be expected in a country, situated as
Canada was then, with a small population, no generally difiused
education, and imperfect facilities of communication with the
great world beyond. In this comparatively isolated position,
journalists might too often mistake

* The rustic murmur of their burgh
For the great wave that echoes round the world,'

G8 The Intellectual Development

Yet despite its defects, the journalism of Upper Canada was

confessedly doing an important work in those backward days of

Canadian development. The intelligence of the country would

have been at a much lower ebb, without the dissemination of

the press throughout the rural districts.

Whilst the journalists already named were contending in Upper
Canada with fierce zeal for their respective parties, new names
had appeared in the press of the other provinces. The Canadien
was edited for years by M. Etienne Parent, except during its
temporary suspension, from 1825 to 1831. His bold expression
of opinion on the questions that forced a small party of his
countrymen into an ill-advised rebellion sent him at last to
prison j but, like others of his contemporaries, he eventually '
more peaceful times received a recompense for his ser/ices b
appointments in the public service, and died at last of a ripe old
age a few months after his retirement from the Assistant- Sec-
retaryship of State for the Dominion. In his hands the Cana-
dien continued to wield great power among his compatriots, who
have never failed to respect him as one of the ablest journalists
their country has produced. His writings have not a little his-
torical value, having been, in all cases where his feelings were
not too deeply involved, characterized by breadth of view and

critical acumen.

"Whilst Cary, Neilson, Mackenzie, Parent, Dalton and Gur-
nett were the prominent journalists of the larger provinces,

of the Canadian People. G9

— ^M^^— M III ■ ■- Mil I I'll ^ '• - '■ -■ ' ■' ' i^iiii. Ml— ■ Mil l^■ll^^^l ^

where politics were always at a fever heat, a young journalist
first appeared in the Marii ime Colonies, who was thenceforth
to be a very prominent figure in the political contests of his na-
tive province. In 1827, Joseph Howe, whose family came of
that sturdy, intelligent New England stock which has produced
many men and women of great intellectual vigour, and who had
been from an early age, like Franklin, brought up within the
precincts of a printing office, bought out the JFeekhj Chronicle^
of Halifax, and, changing its name to the Acadla7i, commenced
his career as a public writer. Referring to tiie file of the Aca^
dian, we see little to indicate unusual talent. It contains some
lively sketches of natural scenery, some indifferent poetry, and
a few common-place editorial contributions. A few months
later he severed his connection with the Acadian and purchased
the Nova Scotian from Mr. G. R. Young, the brother of the
present Chief-Justice, a man of large knowledge and fine intel-
lect. It was a courageous undertaking for so young a map, as
he was only 24 years of age when he assumed the control of so
prominent a paper ; but the rulers of the dominant official party
soon found in him a vigorous opponent and a zealous advocate of
Liberal opinions. It is a noteworthy fact that Mr. Howe, like
Mr. Mackenzie in Upper Canada, made himself famous at the
outset of his career by pleading on his own behalf in a case of
libel. Mr. Mackenzie had been prosecuted for an alleged libel
circulated during a political contest with Mr. Small, and defended

70 The Intellectual Develojynient

his own cause so successfully that the ju^ t gave him a verdict ;
and they are even said, according to Mr. Lindsey's * Life of Mr,
Mackenzie,' to have debated among themselves whether it was
not competent for them to award damages to the defendant for
the annoyance of a frivolous prosecution. Mr. Howe's debut as
an advocate was in connection with a matter of much graver
importance. He had the courage, at a time when there existed
many abuses apparently without hope of redress, to attack the
Halifax Bench of Magistrates, little autocrats in their way, a
sort of Venetian Council, and the consequence was a criminal
indictment for libel. He determined to get up his own case,
and, after several days' close study of authorities, he went to the
jury in the Old Court Koora, now turned into the Legislative
Library, and succeeded in obtaining a glorious acquittal and no
small amount of popular applause for his moral courage on this
memorable occasion. The subsequent history of his career jus-
tified the confidence which his friends thenceforth reposed in
him. His indefatigable industry, added to his great love of the
masters of English literature, soon gave vigour and grace to
his style, whilst his natural independence of spirit that could lit-
tle brook control in any shape, and his innate hatred of political
des[)otism, soon led him to attack boldly the political abuses of
the day. The history of Joseph Howe from that day was a his-
'tory of the triumph of Liberal principles and of responsible
'government in Kova Scotia. As a versatile writer, he has had no

of the Canadian People, 71

superior in Canada, for be brought to tbe political controversies
of bis time tbe aid of powerful invective and cutting satire ;
wbilst, on occasions wben party strife was busbed, be could
exbibit all tbe evidences of bis cultivated intellect and sprightly

humour. ■ '' V::^ -.,•' " ".'.\ ^^ ';'^^^

Tbe new era of Canadian journalism commenced with the
tbe settlement of tbe political difficulties which so long disturbed
the provinces, and with tbe concession of responsible government,
which gave a wider range to the intellect of public writers. Tbe
leading papers, in 1 8 40, were the Montreal (ya;2;e^^e, the Montreal
Herald, the Canadien, tbe Quebec Gazette, tbe Quebec Mercury,
in Lower Canada; the British Colonist, British Whig, and Ex-
ami/ter, in Upper Canada ; the I^ova Scotian and Acadian Re-
corder, in Nova Scotia ; tbe News, in New Brunswick. Tbe
Colonist was founded at Toronto, in 1838, by Hugh Scobie, un-
der the name of the Scotsman — changed to tbe former title in
the third number — and from the outset took a high position as
an independent organ of the Conservative party. Tbe copy of
the first number, before me, is quite an improvement on the Ga-
zette and Mercury of Quebec, as published in the early part of
the century. It contains some twenty-four columns, on a sheet
about as large as tbe Ottawa Free Press. It contains several
short editorials, a resume of news, and terse legislative reports.
Among the advertisements is one of the New York Albion, which,
or so many years, afforded an intellectual treat to tbe people of

72 The Intellectual Development

all the provinces ; for it was in its eolumns they were able to
read the best productions of Marryatt and other English authors,
not easily procurable in those early times ; besides being annu-
ally presented with engravings of merit — a decided improvement
on the modern chromo — from the paintings of eminent artists ;
engravings which are still to be seen in thousands of Canadian
homes, and which, in their vay, helped to cultivate taste among
the masses, by whom good pictures of that class could not be
easily procured.

The Examiner was started at Toronto, on the appointment of
Lord Durham to the Government of Canada, as an organ of the
Liberal party, by Mr. Francis Hincks, a young Irishman, who,
from his first arrival in Canada, attracted attention as a finan-
cier and a journalist. The Examiner, however, had not a long
existence, for Sir Francis Hincks — we ^ive him his later title,
won after years of useful public service a-s journalist and states-
man— proceeded, in 1843, to Montreal, where he established
the Pilot, which had much influence as an organ of the party
led by Baldwin and Lafontaine. In 1844, a young Scotchman,
Mr. George Brown, began to be a power in the politics of the
Canadian Provinces. He was first connected with The Banner,
founded in the interest of the Free Church party ; but the
Liberals found it necessary to have a special organ, and the re-
suit was the establishment, in 1844, of the Toronto Globe, at
first a weekly, then a tri- weekly, and eventually the most widely

of the Canadian People. 73

circulated and influential daily paper in British North America.
During the thirty-five years Mr. Brown remained connected
with that journal it invariably bore the impress of his power-
ful intellect. The Globe and George Brown were always syno-
nymous in the j)ublic mind, and the influence he exercised over
his party — no doubt a tyrannical influence at times — proved the
power that a man of indomitable will and tenacity of purpose
can exercise in the control of a political organ. From 1844 to
the present time the newspaper press made progress equal to
the growth of the provinces in population, wealth and intelli-
gence. The rapid improvement in the internal communications
of the country, the increase of post oflices and the cheapness of
postage, together with the remarkable development of public
education, especially in Upper Canada, naturally gave a great
impulse to newspaper enterprise in all the large cities and towns,
Lc Journal de Quebec was established in 1842 by the Hon Joseph
CauchoUj from that time a force in political life. Another jour-
nal, the Minei've, of Montreal, w^hich had been founded in 1827
by M. Morin, but had ceased publication during the troubles of
1837-8, re-appeared again in 1842, and assumed that influential
position as an exponent of the Bleus which it has continued
to occupy to the present. Le Pays, La Patrie, and TJAvenir
w^ere other Canadian papers, supporting the Rouges — the latter
having been established in 1848, and edited by V enfant terrible,
M. J. B. Eric Dorion, a brother of Sir Antoine Dorion. In

74 The Intellectual Development

TJj)per Canada, Mr. R. Held Smiley e,stablislied, during 1846,
the Hamilton Spectator, as a tri-weekly, which was changed to
a daily issue in 1852. In 1848, Mr. W. Macdougall appeared
for the first time as a journalist, in connection with the Canada
Farmer ; but when that journal was merged into the Canada
Agriculturist, he founded the North American, which exerted no
small influence as a trenchant, vigorous exponent of Keform
principles, until it was amalgamated, in 1857, with the Globe,
In 1852 the Leader was established, at Toronto, by Mr. James
Beaty — the old Patriot becoming its weekly issue — and during
the years it remained under the editorial management of Mr.
Charles Lindsey — a careful, graceful writer of large knowledge
— it exercised much influence as an exponent of the views of
the Liberal Conservative party j but soon after his retirement
it lost its position, and died at last from pure inanition and
incapacity to keep up with the progressive demands of modern
journalism. In 1857, Mr. McGee made his appearance in Canada
as the editor of the Montreal New Era, in which he illustrated
for some years the brilliancy of his style and his varied attain-
ments. The history of journalism, indeed, from 1840 to 1867,
brings before us a number of able writers, whose names are re-
membered with pride by all who were connected with them and
had opportunities, not merely of reading their literary contri-
butions, but of personally associating with men of such varied
accomplishments and knowledge of the Canadian world. Mor-

of the Canadian People. 75

rison, Sheppard, Penny, Chamberlin, Brown, Lindsej, Macdou-
gall, Hogan, McGee, Whelan, P. S. Hamilton, T. White, De-
rome, Cauchon, Jos. Doutre, were the most distinguished writers
of an epoch wliich was famous for its political and industrial pro-
gress. But of all that brilliant phalanx, Mr. White alone con-
tributes, with more or less regularity, to the press, whilst all
the others are either dead or engaged in other occupations.*

Since 1867, the Mail, established in 1873 as the chief organ of
the Liberal Conservatives, has come to the front rank in jour-
nalism, and is a powerful rival of the Globe, while the Colonist,
Leader, and other papers which once played an important part
in the political drama, are forgotten, like most political insti-u-

* Mr. McGee was assassinated in 1868. The circumstances of the death of
John Sheridan Hogan, in 1859, were not known till years afterwards, when
one of the infamous Don Gang revealed the story of his wretched end.
Then we have the great journalist and leader of the Liberal party in Upper
Canada also dying from the effects of a pistol-wound at the hands of a drun-
ken reprobate. Hon. Edward Whelan, of Charlottetown, died years ago.
Mr. Morrison died whilst editor of the Toronto Daily Tfhrjraph. Mr.
Sheppard was, when last heard of, in New York, in connection with the
press. Mr. Lindsey is Registrar of Toronto. Hon. Joseph Cauchon is
Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba. Mr. Chambeilln is Queen's Printer
at Ottawa, and his partner on the Gazette, Mr. Lowe, is also in the Civil
service. Mr. Derome died only a few weeks ago. Mr. Penny is a Senator.
Mr. McDougall is a member of the Commons, and lives in Ottawa. Mr.
Doutre is at the head of his profession in Quebec. Mr. Belford, of the Mail,
died a few veeks ago at Ottawa. Besides those older journalists mentioned
in the text, younger men, like Mr. Descelles and Mr. Dansereau, of the
Minerve, and Mr. Patteson, of the Mail, have also received positions re-
cently in the public service. Mr. Edward McDonald, who founded, with
Mr. Garvie, the Halifax Citizen, in opposition to the Reporter, of which the
present writer was editor, died Collector of the Port. Mr. Bo well, of the
Belleville Intelligencer, is now Minister of Customs. The list might be ex-
tended indefinitely.

76 The Intellectual Development

ments that have done their service and are no longer available.
Several of the old journals so long associated with the history of
political and intellectual activity in this country, however, still
exist as influential organs. The Quebec Gazette was, some years
ago, merged into another Quebec paper — having become long
before a memorial of the past in its appearance and dulness, a
sort of Rip Yan Winkle in the newspaper world. The Canadien
has always had. its troubles; but, nevertheless, it continues to
have influence in the Quebec district, and the same may be said
of the Journal de Quebec^ though the writer who first gave it power
in politics is now keeping petty state in the infant Province of
the West. The Quebec Mercury still exists, though on a very
small scale of late. The Montreal Gazette (now the oldest paper
in Canada), the Montreal Herald, the Mtnerve^ the Hamilton
Spectator, and the Brockville ^eco?'c?er (established in 1820), are
still exercising political influence as of old. The St. John News
and the Halifax Acadian Becorder are still vigorously carried on.
The Halifax Chronicle remains the leading Liberal organ in
Nova Scotia, though the journalist whose name was so long asso-
ciated with it in the early days of its influence died a few years
ago in the old Government House, within whose sacred walls
lie was not permitted to enter in the days of his fierce contro-
versy with Lord Falkland. In its later days, the Hon. William
Anuand, lately in the employment of the Dominion Government
in London, was nominally the Editor-in-Chief, but the Hon

of the Canadian People. 77

Jonathan McCully, Hiram Blanchard, and William Garvie were
among those who contributed largely to its editorial columns —
able political writers not long since dead. The public journals
of this country are now so numerous that it would take several
pages to enumerate them ; hardly a village of importance
throughout Canada but has one or more weeklies. In 1840
there were, as accurately as I have been able to ascertain, only
65 papers in all Canada, including tJie Maritime Provinces. In
1857, there were 243 in all; in 1862 some 320, and in 1870 the
number had increased to 432, of which Ontario alone owned 255.
The number has not much increased since then — the probable
number being now 465, of which 56, at least, appear daily.*
The Post Office statistics show in 1879, that 4,085,454 lbs. of
newspapers, at one cent per lb. passed through the post offices
of the Dominion, and 5,610,000 copies wero posted otherwise.
Nearly three millions and a half of papers were delivered vmder
the free delivery system in the cities of Halifax, Hamilton,
Lordon, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, St. John, and Toronto.
Another estimate gives some 30,000,000 of papers passing

* The data for 1840 are taken from Martin's ' Colonial Empire,' and Mrs.
Jameson's account. The figures for 1857 are taken from Lovell's * Canada
Directory ; ' the figures for 1880 from the lists in Commons and Senate Bead-
ing Rooms. The last census returns for the four old Provinces give only 308
printing establishments, employing 3,400 hands, paying $1,200,000 in wages,
and producing articles to the worth of $3,420,202. Although not so stated,
these figures probably include job as well as newspaper offices — both being
generally combined — and newspapers where no job work is done are obvi-
ously left out.

78 The Intellectual Development

through the Post Office in the course of a year, of which prob-
ably two thirds, or 20,000,000, are Canadian. These figures do
not, however, represent any thing like the actual circulation of
the Canadian papers, as the larger proportion are immediately
delivered to subscribers by carriers in the cities and towns.
The census of 1870 in the United States showed the total
annual circulation of the 5,871 newspapers in that country to be,
1,508,548,250, or an average of forty for each person in the
Republic, or one for every inhabitant in the world. Taking the
same basis for our calculation, we may estimate there are up-
wards of 160,000,000 copies of newspapers annually distributed
to our probable population of four millions of people. The
influence which the newspaper press must exercise upon the
intelligence of the masses is consequently obvious.

The names of the journals that take the front rank, from the
enterprise and ability with which they are conducted, will occur
to every one au couranf with public afiairs : the Globe and Mail,
in Toronto , the Gazette and Herald, in Montreal ; the Chronicle
(in its 34th year) and Mercury, in Quebec ; the Spectator and
Times, in Hamilton ; the Free Press and Advertiser, in London ;
the British Whig (in its 46th year) and Daily News, in Kings-
ton ; Citizen and Free Press, in Ottawa ; Neics, Globe, Telegraph,
and Sun, in St. John, IT. B. ; Herald and Chronich, in Halifax ;
the Examiner and Eatriot, in Prince Edward Island, are the
chief exponents of the principles of the Conservative and Liberal

of the Canadian People. 79

party. Besides these political organs the Montreal JStar and
WitiiesSj and the Toronto Telegram have a large circulation, and
are more or less independent in their opinions. Among the
French papers, besides those referred to above, we have the
Courrier de Montreal (1877), Nouveau Monde (1867), VEvene-
mew^ (1867), Courrier d' Ottawa^ now le Canada {IS7 9) j Franco
Canadien (1857), which enjoy more or less influence in the Pro-
vince of Quebec. Perhaps no fact illustrates more strikingly
the material and mental activity of the Dominion than the num-
ber of newspapers now published in the new Province of the
North- West. The first paper in that region appeared in 1859,
when Messrs. Buckingham & Coldwell conveyed to Fort Garry
their press and materials in an ox cart, and established the
little iVor' Wester immediately under the walls of the fort. K'ow
there are three dailies published in the City of Winnipeg alone
— all of them well printed and fairly edited — and at least six-
teen papers in all appear periodically through the North- West.
The country press — that is to say, the press published outside the
great centres of industrial and political activity — has remark-
ably improved in vigour within a few years ; and the metropo-
litan papers are constantly receiving from its ranks new and
valuable accessions, whilst there remain connected with it,
steadily labouring with enthusiasm in many cases, though the
pecuniary rewards are small, an indefatigable band of tersf well-
informed writers, who exercise no mean influence within the

80 The Intellectual Development

respective spheres of their operations. The Sarnia OhservcTy
Sherbrooke Gazette^ Stratford Beacon, Perth Courier (1834), Lind-
say Post, Guelph Mercury (1845)^ Yarmouth Herald, Peterboro*
Beview, St. Thomas Journal, News of St. Johns (Q), C currier
de St. Ilyacintlie, Carleton Sentinel, Maritime Farmer, are among
the many journals which display no little vigour in their edi-
torials and skill in the selection of news and literary matter.
During the thirteen years that have elapsed since Confederation
new names have been inscribed on the long roll of Canadian
journalists. Mr. Gordon Brown still remains in the editorial
chair of the Globe, one of the few examples we find in the
history of Canadian journalism of men who have not been car-
ried away by the excitement of politics or the attraction of a
soft place in the public service. The names of White, McCul-
loch, Farrar, Rattray, G. Stewart, jr., M. J. Griffin, Carroll
Ryan, Stewart (Montreal Herald), Stewart (Halifax Herald),
Sumichrast, Fielding, Elder, Geo. Johnson, Blackburn (London
Free Press), Cameron (London Advertiser), Davin,Dymond, Pirie,
D. K. Brown, Mackintosh, Macready, Livingstone, Ellis, Houde,
Vallee,Desjardins, Tarte, Faucher de St. Maurice, Fabre, Tasse,
L'O. David, are among the prominent writers on the most wide-
ly circulated English andFrench Canadian papers.

In the necessarily limited review I have been forced to give
of the progress of journalism in Canada, I have made no men-
tion of the religious press which has been established, in the

of the Canadian People. 81

large cities principally, as the exponent of the /iews of particu-
lar sects. The Methodist body has been particularly successful
in this line of business, in comparison with other denomina-
tions. The Christian Guardian^ established at Toronto in 1829,
under the editorial supervision of Rev. Egerton Ryerson, con-
tinues to exhibit its pristine vigour under the editorship of the
Rev. Mr. Dewart. The organ of the same body in the Mari-
time Provinces is the Wesley an y edited by Rev. T. Watson Smith,
and is fully equal in appearance and ability to its Western con-
temporary. The Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopal Methodists
and Congregationalists, have also exponents of their particular
views. The Church of England has made many attempts to
establish denominational organs on a successful basis, but very
few of them have ever come up to the expectations of their
promoters in point of circulation — the old Church having been,
on the whole, the most ably conducted. At present there are
three papers in the west, representing different sections of the
Church. The Roman Catholics have also their organs, not so
much religious as political — the St. John Freeman, edited by
the Hon. Mr. Anglin, is the most remarkable for the ability
and vigour with which it has been conducted as a supporter of
the views of the Liberal party in the Dominion, as well as of
the interests of the Roman Catholic body. In all there
are some thirty papers published in the Dominion, profess-

82 The Intellectual Development

ing to have the interests of certain sects particularly at
heart.*

The Canadian Illustrated News and L'Opinion PnUiquey which
owe their establishment to the enterprise of Mr. Desbarats, a
gentleman of culture, formerly at the head of the old Govern-
ment Printing OflSce, are among the examples of the new vig-
our and ability that have characterized Canadian journalistic
enterprise of recent years. The illustrations in the News are,
on the whole well executed, and were it possible to piint them
on the superior tinted paper of the Graphic^ and it would be
possible if the people were willing to pay the expense, they
would compare more favourably than they do with the impres-
sions of the older papers published in New York and London.
In its prints of native scenery, and portraits of deceased
Canadians of merit, the News is a valuable and interesting
addition to journalism in this country, and will be found most
useful to the future generations who will people the Dominion.
Nor does Canada now lack an imitator of Punchy in the hu-
morous line. It is noteworthy that whilst America has produced
humorists like * Sam Slick,' Ar^ mus Ward, Mark Twain, and
others, no American rival to Punch has yet appeared in Boston
or New York. The attempts that /e heretofore been made
have been generally coarse caricatures —for example, the politi-

* It is noteworthy that the Canadian relij^ious press has never attained
the poiJularity of the American Denominational Journals, which are said to
have an aggregate circulation of nearly half of the secular press.

q/ tlie Canadian People. 8^3

cal cartoons in Harper's Weeklf/, which are never characterized
by those keen artistic touches that make Punch so famous. Pre-
vious efforts in this field of political and social satire in Canada
have always failed for want of support, as well as from the absence
of legitimate humour. The oldest satirical sheet was Le Pan-
tastiquCf published at Quebec by jN". Aubin, who was a very bitter
partisan, and was sent to gaol in 1838 for the expression of his
opinions. The Grumbler was a more creditable effort made in
Toronto some quarter of a century ago, to illustrate and hit off
the political and social foibles of the day in Canada. But it has
been left for Mr. Bengough in these times to rise in Grip far
above all previous attempts in the same direction, and * to show
up ' very successfully, and generally with much humour, certain
salient features of our contemporary history.

The influence of the press, during the century, must be meas-
ured by the political intelligence and activity of the people.
Only in the United States are the masses as well informed on the
public questions of the day as are the majority of Canadians,
and'this fact must be attributed, in a large measure, to the efforts
of journalists to educate the people and stimulate their mental
faculties. When education was at a low ebb indeed, wh*^n the
leading and wealthier class was by no means too anxious to
increase the knowledge of the people, the press was the best
vehicle of public instruction. No doubt it often abused its
trust, and forgot the responsibilities devolving on it ; no doubt

84 The Intellectual Development

its conductors were too frequently animated by purely selfish mo-
tives, yet, taking the good with the evil, the former was predom-
inant as a rule. It is only necessary to consider the number of
journalists who have played an important part in Parliament,
to estimate the influence journalism must have exerted on the
political fortunes of Canada. The names of Neilson, Bedard, W.
L. Mackenzie, Hincks, Howe, Brown, and Macdougall, will re;
call remarkable epochs in our history. But it is not only as a
political engine that the press has had a decided beneficial effect
upon the public intelligence ; it has generally been alive to the
social and moral questions of the hour, and exposed religious
charlatanry, and arrested the progress of dangerous social in-
novations, with the same fearlessness and vigour which it has
shown in the case of political abuses. Political controversy, no
doubt, has too often degenerated into licentiousness, and public
men have been too often maligned, simply because they were
political opponents — an evil which weakens the influence of
journalism to an incalculable degree, because the people begin
at last to attach little or no importance to charges levelled reck-
lessly against public men. But it is not too much to say that
the press of all parties is commencing to recognise its responsi-
bilities to a degree that would not have been possible a few yeai-s
ago. It is true the ineffable meanness of old times of partisan con-
troversy will crop out constantly in certain quarters, and political
writers are not always the safest guides in times of party excite-

i

of the Cawidlan People. 80

ment But there is a healthier tone in public discussion, and
the people are better able to eliminate the truth and come to a
correct conclusion. Personalities are being gradually discou-
raged, and appeals more frequently made to the reason rather
than to the passion and prejudice of party — a fact in itself some
evidence of the progress of the readers in culture. The great
change in the business basis on which the leading newspapers are
now-a-days conducted, of itself must tend to modify political
acrimony, and make them safer public guides. A great news-
paper now-a-days must be conducted on the same principles on
which any other business is carried on. The expenses of a daily
journal are now so great that it requires the outlay of large
capital to keep it up to the requirements of the time ; in fact,
it can best be done by joint-stock companies, rather than by
individual effort. Slavish dependence on a Government or party,
as in the old times of journalism, can never make a newspaper
successful as a financial speculation, nor give it that circulation
on which its influence in a large measure depends. The journal
of the present day is a compilation of telegraphic despatches from
all parts of the world, and of reports of all matters of local and
provincial importance, with one or more columns of concise edi-
torial comment on public topics of general interest ; and the
success with which this is done is the measure of its circulation
and influence. Both the Glohe and Mail illustrate this fact very
forcibly ; both journals being good newi^pipen^y in every sense of

8G TJie hitelledual Develoj)ment

the term, read by Conservatives and Liberals, irrespective of
political opinions, although naturally depending for their chief sup"
port on a particular party. In no better way can we illustrate
the gi-eat change that has taken place within less than half a
century in the newspaper enterprise of this country than by com-
paring a copy of a journal of 1839 with one of 1880. Taking, in
the first place, the issue of the Toronto British Colonist j for the
23rd October, 1839, we have before us a sheet, as previously
stated, of twenty-four columns, twelve of which are advertise-
ments and eight of extracts, chiefly from New York papers.
Not a single editorial appeared in this number, though pro-
minence was given to a communication describing certain riotous
proceedings, in which prominent * blues * took part, on the occa-
sion of a public meeting attempted to be held at a Mr. Davis's
house on Yonge Street, for the purpose of considering important
changes about to take place in the political Constitution of the
Canadas. Mr. Poulett Thompson had arrived in the St. Law-
rence on the 16th, but the Colonist was only able to announce
the fact on the 23rd of the month. New York papers took four
days to reach Toronto-— a decided improvement, however, on old
times — and these afforded Canadian editors the most convenient
means of culling foreign news. Only five lawyers advertised
their places of business ; Mr. and Mrs. Crornbie announced the
opening of their well-known schools. McGill College, at last,
advertised that it was open to students — an important event in

of the Canadian People, 87

the educational history of Canada, which, however, received no
editorial comment in the paper. We come upon a brief adver-
tisement from Messrs. Armour & Ramsay, the well-known book-
sellers ; but the only book they announced was that work so
familiar to old-time students, * "VValkinghame's Arithmetic'
Another literary announcement was the publication of a work,
by the Rev. R. Murray, of Oakville, on the 'Tendency and Errors
of Temperance Societies ' — then in the infancy of their progress
in Upper Canada. One of the most encouraging notices was
that of the Montreal Type Foundry, which was beginning to com-
pete with American establishments, also advertised in the same
issue — an evidence of the rapid progress of printing in Canada.
Only one steamer was advertised, the Gore, which ran between
Toronto and Hamilton; she was described as * new, splendid,
fast-sailing, and elegantly fitted up,' and no doubt she was,
compared with the old batteaux and schooners which, not long
before, had kept up communication with other parts of the Pro-
vince. On the whole, this issue illustrated the fact that Toronto
was making steady progress, and Upper Canada was no longer a
mere wilderness. Many of my readers will recall those days, for
I am writing of times within the memory of many Upper
Canadians.

Now take an ordinary issue of the Mailj printed on the same
day, in the same city, only forty-one years later. We see a
handsome paper of eight closely-printed pages — each larger than

88 The Intellectual Development

a page of the Colonist — and fifty-six columns, sixteen of which
are devoted to advertisements illustrative of the commercial
growth, not only of Toronto, but of Ontario at large — advertise-
ments of Banking, Insurance and Loan Companies, represent-
ing many millions of capital ; of Railway and Steamship Lines,
connecting Toronto daily with all parts of America and Europe;
of various classes of manufactures, which have grown up in a
quarter of a century or so. No less than five notices of theat-
rical and other amusements appear ; these entertainments take
place in spacious, elegant halls and opera houses, instead of the
little, confined rooms which satisfied the citizens of Toronto only
a few years ago. Some forty barristers and attorneys, physi-
cians and surgeons — no, not all gentlemen, but one a lady —
advertise their respective offices, and yet these are only repre-
sentative of the large number of persons practising these profes-
sions in the same city. Leaving the advertisements and review-
ing the reading matter, we find eleven columns devoted to
telegraphic intelligence from all parts of the w^orld where any
event of interest has occurred a day or two before. Several
columns are given up to religious news, including a lengthy
report of the proceedings of the Baptist Union, meeting, for
the first time, under an Act of Parliament of 1880 — an Associ-
ation intended for the promotion of missions, literature, and
church work, into which famous John Bunyan would have
heartily thrown himself, no longer in fear of being cast into pri-

of the Canadian People. 89

son. Four columns are taken up with sports and pastimes, such
as lacrosse, the rifle, rowing, cricket, curling, foot-ball, hunting —
illustrative of the growing taste among all classes of young men
for such healthy recreation. Perhaps no feature of the paper
gives more conclusive evidence of the growth of the city and
province than the seven columns specially set apart to finance,
commerce and marine intelligence, and giving the latest and
fullest intelligence of prices in all places with which Canada has
commercial transactions. Nearly one column of the smallest
type is necessary to announce the arrivals and departures of
the steam-tugs, propellers, schooners and other craft which make
up the large inland fleet of the Western Province. We find
reports of proceedings in the Courts in Toronto and elsewhere,
besides many items of local interest. Five columns are made up
of editorials and editorial briefs, the latter an interesting feature
of modern journalism. The * leader ' is a column in length,
and is a sarcastic commentary on the * fallacious hopes ' of the
Opposition ; the next article is an answer to one in the London
Economist, devoted to the vexed question of protective duties in
the Colonies; another refers to modern ' literary criticism,' one
of the strangest literary products of this busy age of intellectual
development. In all we have thirty-six columns of reading
matter, remarkable for literary execution and careful editing, as
well as for the moderate tone of its political criticism. It will be
seen that there is only one advertisement of books in tbe

90 The hitellectiud Development

columns of this issue, but the reason is that it is the custom
only to advertise new works on Saturday, when the paper
generally contains twelve pages, or eighty-four columns. On the
whole, the issue of a very prominent Canadian paper illustrates
not oijly the material development of Ontario in its commercial
and advertising columns, but also the mental progress of the
people, who demand so large an amount of reading matter at
the cost of so much money and mental labour.

As the country increases in wealth and population, the Press
must become undoubtedly still more a profession to which men
of the highest ability and learning will attach themselves per-
manently, instead of being too often attracted, as heretofore, by
the greater pecuniary rewards offered by other pursuits in life.
Horace Greeley, Dana, Curtis, Whitelaw Reid and Bryant are
among the many illustrious examples that the neigh Soaring
States afford of men to whom journalism has been a profession,
valued not simply for the temporary influence and popularity it
gives, but as a great and powerful organ of public education
on all the live questions of the day. The journals whose con-
ductors are knowm to be above the allurements of political
favour, even while they consistently sustain the general policy
of a party, are those which most obviously become the true
exponents of a sound public opinion, and the successful com-
petitor for public favour in this, as in all other countries enjoy-
ing a popular system of government.

of the Canadian Peoi>le. 01

CHAPTER IV^.

NATIVE LITERATURE.

T OE D D UH II AM wrote, over fifty years ago, of the French
Canadians : ' They are a people without a history and a
literature.' He was very ignorant, assuredly, of the deep in-
terest that attaches to the historic past of the first pioneers in
Canada, and had he lived to the present day, he would have

blotted out the first part of the statement. But he was right
enough when he added that the French Canadians had, at that
time, no literature of their own. During the two centuries and
more that Canada remained a French Colony, books were neither
read nor written ; they were only to be seen in the educational
establishments, or in a very few private houses, in the later days
of the colony.* An intellectual torpor was the prevailing fea-
ture of the French regime. Only now and then do we meet in
the history of those early times with the name of a man residing
in the colony with some reputation for his literary or scientific
attainments. The genial, chatty L'Escarbot has left us a plea-
sant volume of the early days of Acadie, when De Monts and De
Poutrincourt were struggling to establish Port Royal. The

* The priests appear to have only encouraged books of devotion. La
Hontan mentions an incident of a priest coming into his room and tearing
up a book ; but the library of that gay gentleman was hardly very selei:t and
proper.

92 The Intellectwd Development

works of the Jesuits Lafitau and Charlevoix are well known to
all students of the historic past of Canada. The Marquis de la
Galissoniere was the only man of culture among the function-
aries of the French dominion. Parknian tells us that the physi-
cian Sarrazin, whose name still clings to the pitcher-plant
(Sarracenia purpurea) was for years the only real medical man
in Canada, and was chiefly dependent for bis support on the
miserable pittance of three hundred francs yearly, given him by
the king. Yet it would be a mistake to suppose there was no

cultivated society in Canada. The navigator Bougainville tells
us, that, though education was so defective, the Canadians were
naturally very intelligent, and their accent was as good as that
of the Parisians. Another well-informed writer says * there was
a select little society in Quebec, which wants nothing to make it
agreeable. In the salons of the wives of the Governor and In-
tendant one finds circles as brilliant as in other countries. Sci-
ence and the Fine Arts have their turn, and conversation does
not flag. The Canadians breathe from their birth an air of li-
berty, which makes them very pleasant in the intercourse of life,
and our language is nowhere more purely spoken.' But the
people outside of the little coterie, of which this writer speaks
so flatteringly, had no opportunities whatever of following the
progress of new ideas in the parent state. What learning there
was could only be found among the priests, to whom we owe
* Les Relations des Jesuites,' among other less notable produc-
tions. The Koman Catholic Church, being everywhere a de-

o/ the Canadian People, 1)3

mocracy, the humblest habitant might enter its ranks and aspire
to its highest dignities. Consequently we find the pioneers of
that Church, at the very outset, affording the Canadian an op-
portunity, irrespective of birth or wealth, of entering within its
pale. But apart from this class, there was no inducement offered
to Canadian intellect in those times.

The Conquest robbed the country of a large proportion of the
best class of the Canadian noblesse, and many years elapsed be-
fore the people awoke from their mental slumber. The press
alone illustrated the literary capacity of the best intellects for
very many years after the fall of Quebec. We have already
read how many political writers of eminence were born with the
endowment of the Canadian with political rights, which aroused
him from his torpor and gave his mental faculties a new im-
pulse. The only works, however, of national importance which
issued from the press, from the Conquest to the Union of 1810,

were Mr. Joseph Bouchette's topographical descriptions of Bri-
tish North America, which had to be published in England at a
great expense ; but these books, creditable as they were to the
ability and industry of the author, and useful as they certainly
were to the whole country, could never enter into general circu-
lation. They must always remain, however, the most creditable
specimens of works of that class ever published in any country,
The first volume of poetry, written by a French Canadian, was
published in 1830, by M. Michel Bibai i, who was also the editor

94 Tlce Intellectual Development

of the * Bibliotheque Canadienne,' and ' Le Magazin dii Bas
Canada,' periodicals very short lived, though somewhat pro-
mising.

From the year 1840, commenced a new era in French Cana-
dian letters, as we can see by reference to the pages of several
periodical publications, which were issued subsequently. * Le
Repertoire National,' published from 1848 to 1850, contained
the first efforts of those v/riters who could fairly lay claim to be
the pioneers of French Canadian Literature. This useful pub-
lication was followed by the * Soirees Canadiennes,' and ^ Le
Foyer Canadien,' which also gave a new impulse to native
talent, and those who wish to study the productions of the early
days of French Canadian literature will find much interest and
profit in the pages of these characteristic publications, as well
as in the * Kevue Canadienne,' of these later times. From the
moment the intellect of the French Canadian was stimulated by
a patriotic love for the past history and traditions of his coun-
try, volumes of prose and poetry of more or less merit com-
menced to flow regularly from the press. Two histories of un-
doubted value have been written by French Canadians, and these
arc the works of Garneau and Ferland. The former is the his-
tory of the French Canadian race, from its earliest days to the
Union of 1840. It is written with much fervour, from the point
of view of a French Canadian, imbued with a strong sense of
patriotism, and is the best monument ever raised to Papineau ;

of the Canadian People, 95

for that brilliant man is M. Garneau's hero, to whose political
virtues he is always kind, and to whose political follies he is too
often insensible. Old France, too, is to him something more
than a memory ; he would fix her history and traditions deep in
the hearts of his countrymen ; but great as is his love for her,
he does not fail to show, even while pointing out the blunders
of British Ministries, that Canada, after all, must be happier
under the new, than under the old, regime. The * Cours d'His-
toire du Canada ' w^as unfortunately never completed by the
Abbe Ferland, who was Professor of the Faculty of Arts in the
Laval University. Yet the portion tltat he was able to finish
before his death displays much patient research and narrative
skill, and justly entitles him to a first place among French
Canadian historians.

In romance, several attempts have been made by French
Canadians, but without any marked success, except in two in-
stances. M. de Gaspe, when in his seventieth year, described in
simple, natural language, in ' Les Anciens Canadiens,' the old
life of his compatriots. M. Gerin Lajoie attempted, in *Jean
Rivard,' to portray the trials and difficulties of the Canadian
pioneer in the backwoods. M. Lajoie is a pleasing writer, and
discharged his task with much fidelity to nature. It is some-
what noteworthy that the author, for many years assistant
librarian cf the library of Parliament, should have selected for
his theme the struggles of a man of action in a new country ;

9G TJie Intellectual Development

for no subject could apparently be more foreign to the tastes of
the genial, scholarly man of letters, who, seemingly overcome by
the torpor of official life in a small city, or the slight encou-
ragement given to Canadian books, never brought to full frui-
tion the intellectual powers which his early efforts so clearly
showed him to possess.

In poetry, the French Canadian has won a more brilliant suc-
cess than in the sister art of romance. Four names are best
known in Quebec for the smoothness of the versification, the
purity of style, and the poetic genius which some of their works
illustrate. These are, MM. Le May, Cremazie, Suite, and Fre-
chette. M. Cremazie's elegy on * Les Morts' is worthy of even
Victor Hugo. M. Frechette was recognised long ago in Paris
as a young man of undoubted promise * on account of the genius
which reflects on his fatherland a gleam of his own fame.' Since
M. Frechette has been removed from the excitement of politics,
he has gone back to his first mistress, and has won for himself
and native province the high distinction of being crowned the
poet of the year by the French Academy. M. Frechette has
been fortunate in more than one respect, — in having an Aca-
demy to recognise his poetic talent, and again, in being a citizen
of a nationality more ready than the English section of our popu-
lation to acknowledge that literary success is a matter of national
pride.

The French Canadians have devoted much time and attention
to that fruitful field of research which the study of the customs

of the Canadian Peoj)le. 97

and antiquities of their ancestors opens up to them. The names
of Jacques Yiger and Faribault, Sir Louis Lafontaine, the Abbes
Laverdiere, and Yerrault are well known as those of men who de-
voted themselves to the accumulation of valuable materials
illustrative of the historic past, as the library of Laval Univer-
sity can testify. The edition of Champkiin's works, by the Abb^
Laverdiere for some years librarian of Laval, is a most creditable
example of critical acumen and typographical skill. In the same
field there is much yet to be explored by the zealous antiquarian
who has the patience to delve among the accumulations of mat-
ter that are hidden in Canadian and European archives. This
is a work, however, which can be best done by the State ; and
it is satisfactory to know that something has been attempted of
late years in this direction by the Canadian Government — the
collection of the Haldimand papers, for instance. But we are
still far behind our American neighbours in this respect, as their
State libraries abundantly prove.

The Canadian ballad was only known for years by the favourite
verses written by the poet Moore, which, however musical, have
no real semblance to the veritable ballads with which the voy-
ageurs have for centuries kept time as they pushed over the
lakes and rivers of Canada and the North-west. Dr. Larue
and M. Ernest Gagnon have given us a compilation of this in-
teresting feature of French Canadian literature, which is hardly

yet familiar to the English population of Canada.
6

98 lite Intellectual Development

Other French Canadian names occur to the writer, but it is
impossible to do justice to them in this necessarily limited review.
* Les Legendes,' of the Abb^ Casgrain, * Les Pionniers de
rOuest,' of M. Joseph Tass6, and the works of M. Faucher de
St. Maurice, are among other illustrations of the national spirit
th»t animates French Canadian writers, and makes them de-
servedly popular among their compatriots.

If we now turn to the literary progress of the English-speak-
ing people of Canada, we see some evidences of intellectual ac-
tivity from an early time in the history of these colonies. During
the two decades immediately preceding the Union of 1840, there
was a cultured society in all the larger centres of intelligence.
In official circles there was always found much culture and re-
finement, and the inmates of "Government House,'' in the
several capitals, then as now, dispensed a graceful hospitality
and contributed largely to the pleasures of the little society of
which they were the leaders by virtue of their elevated posi-
tion. Social circles which could boast of the presence of Mr. John
Gait, author of * Laurie Todd,' and other works of note in their
day, of Mr. and Mrs. Jameson, who lived some years in Toronto,
of the Stricklands, of Judge Haliburton, of learned divines, as-
tute lawyers and politicians, and clever journalists, could not
have been altogether behind older communities. From one of
the magazines, published in 1824, we learn that there were
some libraries in the large towns of Quebec, Montreal, York,

of ike Oanadian Peoiile, 99

Kingston, and Halifax ; that belonging to the Parliament at
Quebec being the most complete in standard works. Montreal
as far back as 1823, had several book stores, and a public library
of 8,000 volumes, containing many valuable works, and, inde-
pendent of this, there w^ere two circulating libraries, the property
of booksellers, both of which were tolerably well supplied with
new books.* In this respect Montreal possessed for years de
cided advantages over York, for Mrs. Jameson tells us that
when she arrived there ten years later, that town contained
only one book-store, in which drugs and other articles were also
sold. Indeed, Mr. W. Lyon Mackenzie commenced life in Can-
ada in the book and drug business with Mr. James Lesslie, the
profits of the books going to the latter, and the profits of the
drugs to the former. Subsequently, Mr. Mackenzie established
a circulating library at Dundas, in connection with drugs, hard-
ware, jewellery, and other miscellaneous wares, it being evidently
impossible, in those days, to live by books alone. f By 183G,
however, even Mrs. Jameson, ready as she was to point out the
defects of Canadian life, was obliged to acknowledge that Tor-
onto had * two good book-stores, with a fair circulating library.
Archdeacon Strachan and Chief- Justice Robinson, according to

* Talbot's Canada, Vol. I., p. 77. But it appears that there was a circu-
lating library at Quebec as far back as 1779, with 2,000 volumes ; it was
maintained till a few years ago, when its books were transferred to the
Literary and Historical Society.

t Lindsey's Life, pp. 36-7.

100 Tfie Intellectual Development

the same author, had * very pretty libraries.' "Well-known gen-
tlemen in the other Provinces had also well- furnished libraries
for those times.

We see in the articles contributed to the newspapers many
evidences of careful writing and well-digested reading. Literary
and scientific societies now existed in all the large towns, though
they necessarily depended for their support on a select few.
Theatrical entertainments and concerts of a high order were not
of unfrequent occurrence ; for instance, we read in the Mon-
treal papers of 1833 carefully-written notices of the performances
of Mr. and Miss Kemble. The press also published lengthy crit-
icisms of new publications, much more discriminating in some
cases than the careless reviews of these later times, which seem
too often written simply with the object of puffing a work, and
not with a desire to cultivate a correct taste. We notice, too,
that half a century ago there were gentlemen who thought
they had an innate genius for writing manuals of arithmetic, and
so forth, for the bewilderment of the Canadian youth. The liter-
ary tastes of the people were, then as now, fostered by the Bos-
ton and New York publishers ; for example, we see lengthy
notices of * Harper's Family Library,' a series of cheap publica-
tions of standard works on History, Biography, Travels, &c., an
invaluable acquisition to Canadians, the majority of whom could
ill afford to pay the laige prices then asted for English books.
Several magazines began to be published in the East and West,

of the Canadian People. 101

The first experiment of this kind was the Canadian Ma(ja-
;si^i«, printed by N. Mower, in 1823, and subsequently published
by Joseph Nickless, bookseller, opposite the Court House, Mon-
treal. It was intended, in the words of the preface, *as an
archive for giving permanency to literary and scientific pui-suits
in the only British continental colony in the western hemisph.^re
which hss yet made any progress in settlement and cultivation *
The introduction is a very characteristic bit of writing, com-
mencing as it does with a reference to the condition of * man as
a savage in mind and body,' and to the advance of the countries
of ancient civilization in art and letters, until at last the reader
is brought to appreciate the high object which the conductors
had in view in establishing this new magazine — * to keep alive
the heroic and energetic sentiment of our ancestors, their pri-
vate virtues and public patriotism, and to form, for the example
of posterity, a moral, an industrious, and loyal population.'
The early following issues contained many well-written articles
on Canadian subjects which give us some insight into the habits
and tastes of the people, and are worthy of perusal by all those
who take an interest in the old times of the colony. One parti-
cularly valuable feature was the digest of provincial news at the
end of each number, — civil appointments, deaths, births and
marriages, and army intelligence being deemed worthy of inser-
tion. Among other things illustrative of social progress in 1823,
yf^j 5nd notices of the first amateur concert given at Montreal

102 The Intellectual Development

in aid of a charitable object ; of the establishment of the Quebec
Historical Society, an event in the literary annals of Canada ;
of the foundation of tb hrst circulating library in the City of
Halifax, said to contain a number of valuable works. In 1824,
H. A. Cunningham published, in Montreal, a rival publicatior.
the Canadian BevieWj and Litei'ary and Historical Journal,
which appears to have excited the ire of the editor of the Cana-
dian Magazine^ for he devotes several pages of one issue to a
criticism of its demerits. But these publications had only an
ephemeral existence, and were succeeded by others. One of
those was the Museum, edited by ladies in Montreal, in 1833.
It contained some articles of merit, with a good deal of senti-
mental gush, ''^ such as one found in the keepsakes and other gift
books of those days. The first magazine of ability in the West
appears to have been the Canadian Magazine, edited by Mr.
Sibbald, and published at Toronto in 1833. The next periodical,
which lasted many years, was the Literary Garland, published in

* The veteran editor of the Quehcc Mercury thus pleasantly hit off this class
of literature, always appreciated by boarding-school misses and milliners' ap-
prentices ; — • "The Cousins," written by M. , we candidly admit we did

not encoimter. When a man has arrived at that time of life when he is com-
pelled to use spec no, not so bad as that, but lunettes, in order to ac-
commodate the text tr his eyes, and finds at the conclusion of an article such
a passage as the following : *' Beneath that knoll, at the foot of that weep-
ing ash, side by side, in the bosom of one grave lie Reginald and Charlotte
de Courci " — when a semi-centenarian meets such a passage in such a situation,
it is a loss of time for hijn to turn back and t]ire3d his way through them^zeis
pf thp story,'

of the Canadian People. 103

Montreal, in conjunction with Mr. John Gibson,* by that vete-
ran publisher, John Lowell, a gentleman to whom the country
owes much for Iiis zeal and enterprise in all such literary mat-
ters. All these facts were illustrative of the growth of literary
and cultured taste throughout the Provinces, even in those early
times. But it must be admitted that then, as now, the intellec-
tual progress of Canada was very slow compared with that of
the United States, where, during the times of which I am writ-
ing, literature was at last promising to be a profession, Cooper,
Irving and Poe having already won no little celebrity at home
and abroad. It was not till the Canadas were re-united and
population and wealth poured into the country that culture be-
gan to be more general. Sixteen years after Mrs. Jameson pub-
lished her account of Canada, another writer t visited Toronto,
and wrote in very flattering terms of the appearance of the city,
and the many evidences of taste he noticed in the streets and
homes of its people. At that time he tells us there were ' five
or six large booksellers' shops, equal to any in the larger towns
of England, and some of whom were publishers also.' Mr.
Maclear had at that time * published two very well-got-up vol-
umes on Canada, by Mr. W. H. Smith, and was also the pub-

* These two gentlemen were long associated in the partnership, widely
known throughout Canada, as that of Lovell & Gibson, parliamentary
printers.

t W. H. Kigston. 1852. 2 vols,

104 The hifelledual Bevchiiment

lisherof the A Jifjlo- American Magazhie, a very creditably con-
ducted periodical.' Now, in this same City of Toronto, there
are some forty stationers* and booksellers' establishments, small
and large ; whilst there are about one hundred altogether in the
leading cities of the Provinces. Of the libraries, I shall have
occasion to write some pages further on.

Since 1840, Canadians have made many ambitious efforts in
the walks of literature, though only a few works have achieved
a reputation beyond our own country. Nova Scotia can claim
the credit of giving birth to two men whose works, though in
very different fields of intellectual effort, have won for them no
little distinction abroad. * Sam Slick ' may now be considered
an English classic, new editions of which are still published from
year to year and placed on the bookseller's shelves with the
works of Fielding, Smollett, Butler and Barham. Tne sayings
and doings of the knowing clockmaker were first published by
Mr. Howe in the columns of the old Nova Sootian, still pub-
lished as the weekly edition of the Halifax Chronicle, for the
purpose of preserving some good stories and anecdotes of early
colonial life. Like many good things that appear in the Can-
adian press, the judge's humorous effort would, no doubt, have
been forgotten long before these times, had not the eminent
publisher, Mr. Richard Bentley, seen the articles and printed
them in book form. The humour of the work soon established
the reputation of the author, and together with his companion-

of the Ccutadian People, 105

able qualities made the * old judge ' a favourite when he left his
native province and settled in England, where he lived and died,
like Cowley, Thomson, Pope, and other men known to fame, on
the banks of the Thames. The comments of 'Sam Slick * are
full of keen humour, and have a moral as well. When lirst
publishetl, the work was not calculated to make him popular
with certain classes of his countrymen, impatient of the satire
which touched oti' weaknesses and follies in the little social and
political world of those laggard times ; but now that the habits
of the people have changed, and the Nova Scotia of the Clock-
maker exists no longer, except perhaps in some lonely corner ;
every one laughs at his humorous descriptions of the slow old
times, and confesses, that if things were as Sam has portrayed
them in his quaint way, he only acted the part of a true moralist
in laying them bare to the world, and aiming at them the pointed
shafts of his ready satire. The work is likely to have a more
enduring reputation than the mere mechanical humour of the
productions of 'Mark Twain.' Many of his sayings, like 'soft
sawdar,' have entered into our every day conversation.

The other distinguished Nova Scotian is the learned Principal
of McGill College. Professor Dawson is a native of the County
of Pictou, which has given birth to many men of ability in
divinity, letters and politics. At an early age the natural bent
of his talent carried him into the rich, unbroken field that the
geology of his native province offered in those days to scientists.

106 Tlie Intellectual Development

The two visits he paid with Sir Charles Lyell through Nova
Scotia, gave him admirable opportunities of comparing notes
with that distinguished geologist, and no doubt did much to
encourage him in the pursuit of an attractive, though hardly
remunerative, branch of study. The result was his first work,

* Acadian Geology,' w^hich was at once accepted by savants
everywhere as a valuable contribution to geological litei'ature.
His subsequent works — * The Story of the Earth and Man,'

* Fossil Man,' ' The Origin of the World,' and his numerous
contributions to scientific periodicals, have aided to establish his
reputation as a sound scholar and tasteful writer, as easily
understood by the ordinary reader as by the student of geolo-
gical lore. Moreover, his religious instincts have kept him free
from that scepticism and infidelity into which scientists like
himself are so apt to fall, as the result of tlieir close studies of
natural science j and his later w^orks have all been written with
the object of reconciling the conclusions of Science with the
teachings of Scripture — a very difficult task discharged in a
spirit of candour, liberality and fairness, which has won the
praise of his most able adversaries.

A great deal of poetry has been written in Canadian periodi-
cals, and now and then certainly we come across productions dis-
playing much poetic taste as well as rhythmic skill. The only
work of a high order that has attracted some attention abroad,
is * Saul,' a Drama, by Charles Heavysege, who died in Mon-

of the Canadian People. 107

treal not long since, a humble worker on the daily press. The
leading English reviews, at the time of its appearance, acknow-
ledged that ' it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable works
ever written out of Great Britain ; ' and yet, despite the gran-
deur of the subject, and the poetical and dramatic power, as
well as the psychological analj'sis displayed in its conception
and execution, this production of a local reporter, gifted with
undoubted genius, is only known to a few Canadians. * Saul,*
like Milton's great epic, now-a-days, is only admired by a few,
and never read by the many. Charles Sangster has also given
us a very pleasing collection of poems, in which, like Words-
worth, he illustrates his love for nature by graceful, poetic des-
criptions of the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay. That a pure
poetic vein runs through the minds of not a few of our writers,
can be seen by a perusal of the poems contributed for some
years to the Canadian Monthly, Scrihiers^ and other publica-
tions, by L'Esperance, Watson, Griffin, Carroll Ryan, ' Fidelis,'
John Reade, Charles Roberts, Mrs. Seymour McLean, and C. P.
Mulvany ; the volume recently published by the latter writer
is undoubtedly a good illustration of the poetic talent that ex-
ists among the cultured classes of our people.

As to Canadian novels and romances, there is very little to
say ; for though there have been many attempts at fiction, the
performance has, on the whole, been weak in the extreme. In
historic romance, only three works of merit have been so far

108 The Intellectual Development

produced ; and these are * Wacousta/ written by Major Richard
son, in 1833 ; *Le Bastonnais,' by M. L'Esperance, and *Le Chien
d'Or,' by Mr. Kirby, since 1867 — during the long interval of
nearly forty years between these works, not a single romance
worth reading was published in Canada. These three books,
however, are written with spirit, and recall the masterpieces of
fiction. In novels, illustrative of ordinary life in the Colonies,
we know of no works that anybody remembers except those by
Miss Louisa Murray, the author of * The Cited Curate,* and
* The Settlers of Long Arrow,' who, at all events, writes natur-
ally, and succeeds in investing her story with a vein of interest.
The late Professor De Mille gave us two well- written produc-
tions in * Helena's Household,' a * Tale of Rome in the First
Century,' and * The Dodge Club Abroad ; ' but his later works
did not keep up the promise of his earlier efforts, for they
never rose beyond slavish imitations of the ingenious plots, of
Wilkie Collins and his school. Yet they were above the ordin-
ary Canadian novel, and had many readers in the United States
and Canada.

In History, much has been attempted. Every one who can
write an article in a country newspaper thinks he is competent
to give the world a history of our young Dominion in some shape
or other ; and yet, when we come to review the results, it can
hardly be said that the literary success is' rerparkabje. The

0/ ilie Canadian People. >9

history of Canada, as a whole, has yet to be written, and it must
be admitted that the task has its difficulties. The first era has
its picturesque features, w^hich may attract an eloquent writer,
but the field has in a large measure been already occupied with
great fidelity and ability by that accomplished historian, Francis
Parkman, of Boston. The subsequent history, under the English
regime, labours under the disadvantage of want of unity, and
being for the most part a record of comparatively insignificant
political controversy. To the outside world such a histoiy has
probably no very great attraction, and consequently could bring
an author no great measure of reputation. Yet, if a Canadian
imbued with true patriotism, content with the ap])lause of his
own countrymen, should devote to the task much patient re-
search, and a graceful style, and while leaving out all petty and
unimportant details, should bring into bold relief the salient
and noteworthy features of the social and political development
of Canada, such a writer would lift Canadian history out of that
slough of dulness into which so many have succeeded in throw-
ing it in their eflforts to immortalise themselves rather than their
country. Nor can it be truly said that to trace the successive
stages in a nation's grow^th, is a task uninteresting or unimpor-
tant, even to the great world beyond ua But Canada has as yet
no national importance ; she is only in the colonial transition
stage, and her influence on other peoples is hardly yet appreci-
able. So it happens, that whilst the history of a small state in

110 ^Ite Intellectual Development

Europe like Holland, Belgium, or Denmark, may win a writer
a world-wide reputation, as was the case with Motley, on the
other hand, the history of a colonial community is only associ-
ated in the minds of the foreign public with petty political con-
flicts, and not with those great movements of humanity which
have affected so deeply the political and social fabric of Euro-
pean States

All that, however, by way of parenthesis. Garneau's histoiy,
of which we have a fair translation, remains the best work of
the kind, but it is not a history of Canada — simply of one sec-
tion and of one class of the population. Hannay's * History of
Acadia ' is also a work which displays research, and skill in ar-
ranging the materials, as well as a pleasing, readable style.
Such works as Murdoch's * History of Nova Scotia,' Dr. Can-
niff's Bay of Quinte, Dr. Scadding's * Toronto of Old ' are very
valuable in the way of collecting facts and data from dusty
archives and from old pioneers, thus saving the future historian
much labour. The last mentioned book is one of the most in-
teresting works of the class ever published in this country,
and shows what an earnest, enthusiastic antiquarian can do
for the English-speaking races in Canada, in perpetuating the
memories and associations that cling to old landmarks. Like
Dr. Scadding in Toronto, Mr. James Lemoine has delved indus-
triously among the historic monuments of 'Quebec, and made
himself the historian jpar excellence of that interesting old city.

of the Canadian People. Ill

To him the natural beauty of the St. Lawrence and its historic
and legendary lore are as familiar as were the picturesque scen-
ery and the history of Scotland to Sir Walter Scott. Both Mr.
Lemoine and Dr. Scadding illustrate what may be done in other
cities and towns of Canada by an enthusiastic student of their
annals, who would not aim too high, but be content with the re-
putation of local historians or antiquarians. We cannot lose
any time in committing to paper the recollections of those old
settlers who are fast dying out among us. * The Scot in British
North America,' by Mr. W. J. Rattray, is an attempt — and a
most meritorious one — to illustrate the history of the progress
of a class who have done so much for the prosperity of this
country. Historical bodies, like the New England Historical
Society, can do a great deal to preserve the records of old times.
The Quebec Literary Historical Society, founded as long ago as
1824, under the auspices of the Governor-General of the time,
Lord Dalhousie, has done a good work with the small means at
its command in this direction, and it is satisfactory to know
that a similar institution has at last been established in Halifax,
where there ought to be much interesting material in the posses-
sion of old families, whose founders came from New Eugland or
the ** old country " in the troublous times of the American
Revolution.

Reviewing generally works of a miscellaneous class, we find
several that have deservedly won for the authors a certain pOsi-

112 The Intellectual Development

tion in Canadian literature. For instance, Colonel Denison's
works on Cavalry, one of which gained a prize offered by the
Emperor of Russia, illustrate certainly the fertility and acute-
ness of the Canadian intellect when it is stimulated to some
meritorious performance in a particular field. Mrs. Hoodie's

* Eoughing it in the Bush ' is an evidence of the interest that
may be thrown around the story of the trials and struggles of
settlers in the wilderness, when the writer describes the life
naturally and effectively.* Mr. Charles Lindsey has given us,
among other works, a life of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie, — with
whom he was connected by marriage — valuable for its historical
accuracy and moderate spirit. Mr. George Stewart has in

* Evenings in the Library ' illustrated how earnestly and con -
scientiously he has studied English and American literature.
Dr. Daniel Wilson, since he has made Canada his home, has
continued to illustrate the versatility of his knowledge and the
activity of his intellect by his works on * Prehistoric Man,' and

* In the course of my readings of old files in the Parliamentary library,
I came across this reference to the early literary efforts of this lady, whose
pen in later times has contributed so much charming poetry and prose to
Canadian publications, serial and general : ' The editor of the New
York Albion has had the good fortune to obtain as contributor to his
poetical columns the name of Susanna Moodie, better known among the ad-
mirers of elegiac poetry, in her days of celibate life, as Susanna Strickland.
From the specimen with which she has furnished Dr. Bartlett of her poetic
ardour, we are happy to find that neither the Canadian atmosphere nor the
circumstances attendant upon the alteration of her name, have dimmed the
light of that Muse which, in past years, engaged maiiy of our juvenile hours
with pleasure and profit.' — Montreal Gazette^ 1833.

of the Canadian People, 113

' Recollections of Edinburgh/ besides his many contributions to
the proceedings of learned societies and the pages of periodicals,
Mr. Fennings Taylor, an accomplished official of Parliament,
has given us a number of gi*acefully-written essays on Epis-
copalian dignitaries and Canadian statesmen, though he has hail
to labour in most cases with the difficulty of reviewing the
career of men still in life, whose political merit is still a
point in the opinion of parties. Mr. Alpheus Todd, the
well-known librarian of Parliament, has been without a rival
in the dependencies of Great Britain, in his particular line cf
constitutional studies. For over a quarter of a century he has
been accumulating precedent upon precedent, until his mind is
a remarkable store-house of well-digested data, from which he
has illustrated the growth of Parliamentary institutions in Great
Britain and her Colonies. His style is remarkably clear anc^
logical, —though the character of his works and the plan ado[)-
ted in their execution, are unfavourable to literary finish, — and
even those who may not agree with his conclusions, on certain
constitutional points, will give full credit to the conscientious-
ness of his researches and the sincerity of his purpose. His
* Parliamentary Government in England* was described in the
Edinburgh Review as ^ one of the most useful and complete works
which has yet appeared on the practical operation of the British
Constitution.' It says much for our system of Government,
that it has been able to stimulate the intellectual faculties of a

Canadian writer to the production of such thoughtful, erudite
o

114 The Intellectual L- velopment

works. They are a natural outcome of tlie interest which all
classes of our people take in questions of a political bearing.
They illustrate the mental activity which, from the earliest times
in our history, has been devoted to the study of political and
constitutional questions, and which has hitherto for the most
part found expression only in the press or in the legislatures of
the different provinces. Works of constitutional authority like
those of Hallam, May, Stubbs, and Todd must emanate natur-
ally from the student, removed from the turmoil and excitement
of political contests, rather than from the politician and states-
man, whose mind can hardly ever find that freedom from bias
which would give general confidence in his works, if indeed he
could ever find time to produce them.

And here we may appropriately refer to the contributions
made to Colonial literature by the eminent men who have
assisted in giving Canada her present political and industrial
status. The great speeches of Canadian statesmen must nearly
all be sought in the old files of newspapers deposited in our
libraries ; but as a rule the chief interest that now attaches
to these speeches is the light they throw on the history of the
past. The opportunities which Canadian statesmen have had of
making great oratorical efforts have not been frequent in de-
pendencies where the questions have necessarily been for the
most part of purely local importance and of a very practical
character. Yet when subjects of large constitutional or nation-
al importance have come up for discussion, the debates prove

of the Canad'mn People. 115

that Canadian intellects display a comprehensiveness of know-
ledge and a power of argument worthy of a larger arena. Some
of Sir Alexander Gait's speeches, in bringing down the Budget
in old times, were characterized by that masterly arrangement
of statistics which has made Mr. Gladstone so famous in the
House of Commons. Sir John Macdonald's speech explaining
the Washington Treaty, in 1872, was remarkable for its logical
arrangement and its illustrations of the analytical power and the
varied knowledge of that eminent statesman, who, in the inter-
vals of leisure, has always been a student of general literature.
Mr. Blake's speeches afford abundant evidence of the brilliant
talent of a public man who is both a student of books as well as
of politics, and who, were the tendency of Parliamentary oratory
something higher than Diere practical debate, could rise fully to
the height of some great argument. But oratory, in the real
sense of the art, cannot exist in our system of government in a
Colonial dependency where practical results are immediately
sought for. It consequently follows that the speeches which
interest us to-day lose their attraction when the object has been
gained. Both Mr. Howe and Mr. McGee were able to invest
their great addresses with a charm which still clings to them
when we take them up. The reason is, they were, like Gladstone
and Disraeli, both litterateurs who studied their subjects in the
library, among the great masters of eloquence and statesman-
ship, and were thus able to throw around a great question the
flowers of a highly cultivated mind. But even Mr. Howe's most

IIG TJte lutdkdiud Decdopment

memorable speeches of old times would perhaps be hardly ap-
preciated in the cold practical arena in which our public business
is now transacted. Yet it cannot be said that the Legislature
is no field to display the highest qualities of intellectual activity
because it is no longer possible to indulge in those flights of
poetic fancy or those brilliant perorations which are now con-
fined to the pulpit or lecture-hall. The intellectual strength
of the country must be of no mean order when it can give us
statesmen like Sir Charles Tupper and Mr. Mackenzie, whose
best speeches are admirable illustrations of logical arrangement
and argumentative power. And, it may be added, with res[)ect
to the present House, that no previous Parliament, entrusted
with the control of the affairs of Canada, has comprised a larger
number of gentlemen, distinguished not only for their practical
comprehension of the wants of this country, but for their wide
attainments and general culture.

When we come to sum up the literary results of the cen-
tury that has passed since the two races entered conjointly on
the material and intellectual development of Canada, it will be
seen that there has been a steady movement forward. It must
be admitted that Canada has not yet produced any works which
show a marked originality of thought. Some humorous writ-
ings, a few good poems, one or two histories, some scientific and
constitutional productions, are alone known to a small reading
public outside of Canada. Striking originality can hardly be
developed to any great extent in a dependency which naturally,

of the Canadian People. 117

and perhaps wisely in some cases, looks for all its traditions and
Labits of tliought to a parent state. It is only with an older con-
dition of society, when men have learned at last to think as
well as to act for themselves, to originate rather than to repro-
duce, that there can be a national literature. The political deve-
lopment of Canada within forty years affords forcible evidence
of the expansion of the political ideas of our public men, who
are no longer tormented by the dread of what others say of
them, but legislate solely with respect to the internal necessities
of the country ; and the same development is now going on in
other departments of intellectual life, and affords additional
evidence of our national growth. It must also be remembered
that there is a mental activity among the intelligent classes of the
country, in itself as significant as the production of great works.
Like our American neighbours, the mass of Canadians is able to
think intelligently, and come generally to a right conclusion, on
all matters of local concern ; in this respect, no comparison need
be made with the mass of Englishmen or Frenchmen in the Old
World, for the social and educational facilities within the reach
of the people of this country, give them undoubted advantages
over others. It is only necessary to consider the number of
pamphlets and volumes on matters affecting Canada, that annu-
ally issue from the press in this country, to show the existence
of a mental activitv in entire harmony with the industrial pro-

lis The hit died ii at Development

gress of the country.* It is fair then to argue that the intellec-
tual progress of a country like Canada must not be measured
solely by the production of great works which have been stamped
with the approval of the outside literary world, on whose ver-
dict, it must of course be admitted, depends true fame. We must
also look to the signs of general culture that are now exhibited
on all sides, comi)ared with a quarter of a century ago, when
the development of material interests necessarily engrossed all
the best faculties of the peoi)le. The development of higher edu-
cation, together with the formation of Art Schools, Museums,
and Lilerarv Societies, is illustrative of the o:reater mental acti-
vity of ell classes. The paintings of O'Brien and Verner are
j)leasing evidences of the growth of art in a country where,
hitherto, but few pictures of merit have even been imported. It
is no longer considered a sign of good taste to cover the walls

* For instance, we find in Morgan's 'Annual llegister' for 1879, that during
that year there were no less than 166 publications issued from the press, of
which 17 were poetic ; 12 historical ; 15 educational ; 17 legal ; 24 religious ;
06 miscellaneous, &c. Some of these were of considerable merit, as * Tasse's
Pioneers,' F. Taylor's 'Ave Legislatures Parliaments?' Frechette's Poems,
Hannay's 'Acadia,' &c. In this connection it may be interesting to add that
the Parliamentary Library contains some 1,400 copies of pamphlets, bound
iu 200 volumes, since Confederation, and that the total number of original
Canadian publications registered since that time is over 1,500— only a few
of the pami^hlets being registered coj^yright. The Parliamentary Library,
however, is very defective yet in Canadian books, papers and pamphlets.
Laval University lias a far more valuable collection. We ought to have a
National Library like the British jNIuseum, where all Canadian publications
can have a place. Strange as it may seem, only a few copies of old Canadian
papers can be found in the Ottawa Library. Yet, if a little money were
spent and trouble^taken, a valuable collection could be x^rocured from private
individuals throughout the Dominion.

of the Canadian People. Hi)

with oils and chromos whose chief value is the tawdry, showy
gilt which encases them and makes so loud a display on the walls
of the iiouveaux riches. In the style of public buildings and
j)rivate dwellings, there is a remarkable improvement within
twenty years, to indicate not only the increase of national and
individual wealth, but the growth of a cultured taste. Tiie
interior decorations, too, show a desire to imitate the modern
ideas that prevail abroad ; and in this respect every year must
witness a steady advance, according as our people travel more
in the older countries in Europe and study the fashions of the
artistic and intellectual world. There are even now in prosaic,
practical Canada, some men and women who fully appreciate
the aesthetic ideal that the poet Morris would achieve in the
form, harmony, and decoration of domestic furniture. If such
aesthetic ideas could only be realized in the decoration of our
great public edifices, the Parliamentary buildings at Ottawa, for
instance, the national taste would certainly be improved. At
present \\\i%e portraits of politicians, who by intrinsic merit or
political favour have become speakers, stare down from the
walls in solitary grandeur, and already begin to overcrowd each
other. We search in vain for allegorical paintings by eminent
Canadian artists, or monuments of illustrious statesmen, such
as we see in the Capitol at Washington, or in the elegant struc-
ture nearly completed at Albany.

In one respect we are still much behind hand, and that is in
our Public Libraries. The library of the Parliament of Canada

120 Tlie hitelledual Dcvdojjment

still remains the only institution woitliy of much notice in the

Dominion. It was certainly an event in the history of literary

culture in Canada when this lil)rary was moved into the editice

whose architectural beauty is in itself an illus'.ration of the

rapid advance in taste of the Dominion. As one looks up at its

chaste, vaulted ceiling, which lights the tiers of volumes, arranged

in a circle, one recalls the now forgotten poem of Crahbe, tliat

ardent lover of books : —

Come, Child of Care ! to make thy so'il serene,
Approach the treasures of this tranquil scene ;
Survey the dome, and, as the doors unfold,
I'he soul's best cure, in all her cares, behold I
Where mental wealth the poor in thought may find,
And mental phj'sic the diseased in mind.

*• i:- ■»; ^:• *

With awe, around these silent walks we tread ;
These are the lasting mansions of the dead :—
" The dead ! " INIethinks a thousand tongues reply :
" These are the tombs of such as cannot die !
" Crowned with eternal fame, they sit sublime
" And laugh at all the little strife of time."

But whilst we pay this tribute to its architectural grace,
one wonders at the same time at the shortsightedness which
has sacrificed everything to appearance, and given us a build-
ing not even equal to existing demands — as if a library was
a thing of the present, not to increase with the intellectual
requirements of the country. As it is now, the library con-
tains only some 100,000 volumes, many of which have no par-
ticular value. The American and Canadian department is con-

of the Canadian People, 121

fessedly inferior in many res[)ects, although we ought to excel
in that particular. Of late years, the annual grant has heen
extremely small, and chieily devoted to the purchase of hooks
for the law branch, for the especial benefit of lawyers engaged
in the Supreme Court. But we have as yet no Free Libraries
like those in the United States, of which the Boston Library is
a notable illustration.* But, nevertheless, the reading facilities
of the peo})le generally have increased very largely within two
decades. At the present time, as far as we can estimate from
the information within reach, there are some 130,000 volumes
in the Parliamentary Librarieje of the Dominion, 700,000 in the
Universities, Colleges and Schools — all of which are necessarily
of a limited professional class — and 140,000 in Mechanics' In-
stitutes and Literary Societies. The grand total of library and
prize books despatched to the Public Schools of the Province of
Ontario alone within twenty-five years is over one million and a
quarter of volumes — comprising of course books of an educa-

*Boston, twenty years ago, spent and spent well, in founding her great free
library, more than two dollars for each man, woman, and child within her
limits, and she has sustained it to this day with great spirit and liberality.
That library has now more than 300,000 volumes, and her citizens in 1879
took to their homes more than 1,100,000 volumes. Many smaller places in
New England and elsewhere, not without careful investigation, have followed
her examjile, finding in the practical results of her 20 years' work, proof
satisfactory to their tax-payers, that a free library is a profitable invest-
ment of public money, while in the West the great cities of Cincinnati
Chicago, and St. Louis, with Western free-handed energy, have already free
libraries on such a scale that one at least of them bids fair to rank among the
greatest in the world —Sci'ihner's Monthly for Septeml)er, IvSSO, Mhere the
advantages of a free librarv are verv tersely shown.

122 The Intellectual Devetajmient

tional character, l)ut nevertheless valuable in laying the founda-
tion of general culture, and bringing the means of acquiring
knowledge to sections where otherwise such facilities would be
wanting. Last year, the valueof the books imported into Can-
ada amounted to about a million of dollars, or an increase of
about 30 per cent, in ten years. Literary and Scientific Insti-
tutes are increasing in number, and some are doing a useful,
if not a national work : the Quebec Histori^nl Society, refeired
to on a previous page, the Toronto Canadian Institute, which
has made not a few useful contributions to science and litera-
ture, and the Institut Canadien which has erected in Ottawa
one of the handsomest structures yet raised in Canada by a
literarv association. In Ontario there are also some 100 Me-
chanics Institutes, including nearly 11,000 members, with an
aggregate of 118,000 volumes in the libraries; * and it is satis-
factory to learn that institutions which may have an important
influence on the industrial classes are to be [)laced on a more
eflicient basis. These facts illustrate that we are making pro-
gress in the right direction; but what we want, above all things,
are{)ublic libraries, to which all classes may have free access, in
the principal centres of population. The rich men of this coun-
try can devote a part of their surplus wealth to no more patri-
otic purpose than the establishment of such libraries in the places

*Address of Mr. James Yomig, President of Mechanics' Institute -i Associ-
ation of Ontario [Globe, Sept. 24tli, 1880),

of the Ccmadian People. 123

where they live, and in that way erect a monument for them-
selves far more honourable than any that may be achieved by

expenditures on purely selfish objects. All through the New
England and Central States we meet with such illustrations of
private generosity, but there are few similar examples in Canada.
Perhaps the handsome contribution recently made by Mr. Red-
j>ath towards the establishment of a museum in connection with
McGill College — itself a memorial of private generosity — is a
favourable augury of what we may often look for in the future,
as the number of our wealthy men increase and they become
more alive to the intellectual wants of those around them.

In the columns of our ablest journals there is a growing ten-
dency to devote more space to the discussion of literary, artistic
and scientific topics which are engaging attention in the world
of thought. The publication of a periodical like the Bystander
may justly be considered an event in the political and literary
annals of this country. It illustrates the desire that exists for
independent political criticism amid the intense contlict of l)arty
opinion ; and even those who cannot agree with the views of the
eminent gentleman who conducts this work will frankly admit
the originality and independence of thought in all he says. But
it is not only as a ])olitical writer that Mr. Smith is doing good
service to this country ; every one who reads his reviews of cur-
rent events cannot fail to profit by the study of his graceful
style as well as by the versatility of his knowledge on all the
social, political and economic cpiestions that are engaging atten-

124 The InfeUectual Development

tiun at home or abroad. The ydges of the Canadian Monthlg
have also for some time shown that there is coming to the
front a number of writers of considerable intellectual power on
the leading social and religious problems to which so many able
thinkers are devoting themselves now-a-days. Herbert Spencer
has his disciples and defenders, who prove themselves no con-
temptible adversaries of the orthodox school of religion. Very
few^ of us probably sympathize with these modern iconoclasts
who would destroy all motive for right doing in this world, by
breaking down human faith in the existence of one Supreme
Being ; but, at the same time, no one can deny the earnestness
and ability these writers bring to their work. It is quite ob-
vious that such able thinkers as Mr. Spe ^-^r anu his followers
in Canada, with Mr. Le Sueur at their head, cannot be 'snubbed'
cavalierly by the professed teachers of religion. The tendency
of modern thought, a wave of which has reached us, is undoubt-
edly in the direction of bringing all subjects, however sacred, to
the crucial test of argument, fact and experience, and our reli-
gious guides must not think they w^ill prevail by the exhibit of
mere contemptuous inJifFerence to the free thought that ])revails
around them. If our great theological schools and seats of learn-
ing are to prove themselves equal to the demands of the present
day, it will be by moving out of their grooves of worn-out tra-
dition and routine, and by enlarging their teachings so that the
men they send out into the world may be more equal than most
of them appear now to meet in argument the Positivist, Ration-

0/ the Canadian People, 125

alist and Materialist, or whatever the disciple of the modern
scliools of philosophy may call himself. The man of true liber-
ality and faith in the truth of his religious principles must bo
fully prepared to allow the freest expression of opinion, however
antagonistic it may appear to the true happiness of society. This
very conflict of ideas and arguments between such opposite
schools of opinion must, in the end, evolve the truth, and neces-
sarily give additional stimulus to intellectual thought in this
country, where, so far, there has been a great dearth of original
thinkers to elevate us above purely selfish, material interests.

In the natural order of things, the next half century ought
to witness a far larger development of the intellect of this country.
We have already seen that, with the progress of the Dominion
in population and wealth, education has been stimulated to a
remarkable degree, journalism has become more of a profession,
and not only have several books, of more than ordinary value
and merit, been produced in various departments of knowledge,
but there are already signs of a spirit of intellectual emulation
which must, sooner or later, have its full fruition. If Canada
makes the material progress within the next few decades that
her people hope, and her statesmen are endeavouring to accom-
plish, in the face, no doubt, of many difficulties, we may confi-
dently look forward to a corresponding intellectual development.
So much practical work of immediate importance has to be per-
formed in a comparatively new country like this, that native

12G The InfeUechial Development

talent has naturally found chief expression in politics, the pro-
fessions, and the press ; but with greater wealth, and an older
condition of society, literature, science, and art, will be cultivated
to a far larger extent. * It was amid the ruins of the Capitol,'
says Gibbon, ' that I first conceived the idea of writing the
** History of the Koman Empire." ' Such a work could not have
been written among the forests of Canada, while men were la-
bouring with the many difficulties of a pioneer existence. But
with the greater opportunities of leisure and culture necessarily
opening up to us in the future, Canadians may yet have a litera-
ture, not merely imitative, as at present, but creative and original.
Tt is stated somewhere in an old English review of American
literature, that on this new continent we can hardly expect the
rich fruition which springs from that deep, humanized soil of
the old world, which has for ages been enriched by the ripe drop-
pings of a fertile national life, where, in the words of an Ameri-
can poet, —

One half the soil ha;^ walked the rest,
In poets, heroes, martyrs, sages.

It is certainly true that the beauty and grandeur of external
nature alone will never inspire the highest and deepest writings;
but human life with its manifold experiences, its glooms and
glories, sorrows and rejoicings, pains, pleasures and aspirations.
Every rood of ground in the old communities of Europe has its
historic associations to point many a moral and adorn many a

of the Canadian People. 127

tale. Yet if this America of ours has a history only of yester-
day, it, too, has its memoiies and associations to stimulate the
genius of history, poetry and romance. Already in the first
century of American literature have poets and historians and
artists appeared to rival those of the older civilization of the
world. The works of Park man and Longfellow illustrate that
there is, even in the early history and traditions of Canada,
much to evoke the interest of the great world beyond us, when a
writer brings to the task the genius of a true poet or the bril-
liancy of an accomplished historian. If our soil is new, yet it
may produce fruits which will bear a rich flavour of their own,
and may please the palate of even those surfeited with the hot-
house growth of older lands. Hawthorne, Emerson, Howells,
Bret Harte, Sam Slick, are among many writers who illustrate
the raciness and freshness of American production. Nor let it
be forgotten that American and Canadian, in * the fresh woods
and pastures new ' of this continent, have an equal heritage
with the people of the British Islands in that rich, humanized
soil which has borne such rare intellectual fruit. We, too, may
enjoy its bounteous gifts and gather inspiration from its treasures
of ' English undefiled,' although we live in another land whose
history dawned but yesterday, and where the soil is almost

virgin.

In this land there is a future full of promise for literature as
for industry. Our soil speaks to the millions of poor in the old

128 Canadian Iiitcllecttud Development.

countries of the world of boundless hope. Here there is no an-
cient system of social exclusiveness to fix a limit to the intellec-
tual progress of the proletariat. Political freedom rests on a firm,
broad basis of general education. Our political constitution is
not alienated from the intellect of the country, but its successful
working depends entirely on the public intelligence. As our
political horizon widens, and a more expansive national exist-
ence opens before us, so must our intellectual life become not
only more vigorous, but more replete with evidences of graceful
culture :

* For throuja'li all tlie ages one increasing purpose runs,

And the thoughts of men arc widened with the process of the sun?.'

X,.

•

Errata.— Va^Q 91, 1st line, iov fifty r^i^xd/ovti/.